EDITOR’S NOTE:
This is the second of a two-part series on this week’s 90th anniversary of the Port Angeles paper mill now owned by Nippon Paper Industries USA.
PORT ANGELES — On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the paper mill on Marine Drive, what does the future hold for the plant that became a Nippon Paper Industries USA facility in 2003?
It depends.
In a recent interview, mill manager Harold Norlund predicted “disastrous” consequences for Nippon if the company is not allowed to build a new biomass boiler.
“All of us in manufacturing have to learn to be more efficient, reduce costs or somehow improve,” Norlund said later.
“Without us being able to modify our mill, yes, the future is bleak.
“If you don’t change, you don’t have a future.”
Replacing boiler
The company — which will mark the 90th anniversary of the mill Tuesday — plans to spend $71 million to replace the existing main boiler, which was built in the 1950s and was converted in the 1970s to burn biomass, also known as wood slash or hog fuel.
Norlund said that replacing the boiler will protect the mill’s some 200 jobs, create steam to heat the mill and make paper, and — unlike the current main boiler — generate up to 20 megawatts of the 50 megawatts of electricity per hour that Nippon needs to make products such as telephone book paper and newsprint.
Norlund also said the new boiler will be more efficient than the present boiler, and — along with added pollution controls — will cut the mill’s air emissions.
Environmental groups object
Seven environmental groups say that the boiler would increase use of water from the Elwha River, threaten the sustainability of forest ecosystems, increase air and water pollution, and add more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the proposed plant and associated truck traffic.
The groups lost an appeal before the Port Angeles City Council last week on the shoreline development permit that the city of Port Angeles issued.
They plan to appeal the project’s environmental impact statement to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board after the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency approves air-quality permits for the project, the environmental groups’ lawyer, Toby Thaler, has said — which they expect to be this spring.
The groups are Port Townsend AirWatchers, the Olympic Forest Coalition, the Olympic Environmental Council, No Biomass Burn of Seattle, the Center for Environmental Law and Policy of Spokane, the World Temperate Rainforest Network and the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Five of the groups — excluding the Center for Environmental Law and Policy of Spokane and the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club — also have filed an appeal challenging a state permit allowing Port Townsend Paper Corp. to expand its biomass generation.
The Port Townsend mill expects to produce up to 24 megawatts of electricity for sale back to the power grid in its $55 million biomass project.
Air permit
Geoffrey Glass, an engineer with ORCAA, said earlier this month that Nippon’s application has not been declared complete but that he expects a permit to be issued “in a couple of months.”
“We simply have certain criteria to be met to issue a permit,” he said.
“The criteria have not been met at this time. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad project or something’s wrong with it. It’s a pretty good-sized boiler and an involved project. It may take awhile before we nail everything down.”
A permit will be issued within 60 days of an application being declared complete, after which there’s a mandatory public comment period.
“Since we are going to request more information, we are probably looking at couple of months here until a final permit could be issued,” Glass said.
“Even when we have enough information for a permit to be administratively complete, there is still a negotiation period where we determine what we think the conditions of the permit should be and what the emissions limits should be.”
Opposition to the project hasn’t deterred the company from proceeding on the project.
“We’ve already written purchase orders for equipment,” mill manager Norlund said.
“Some construction is already occurring off site.”
On-site construction will be permitted only after all permits have been approved, Norlund said.
More efficient
Norlund said that the new biomass burner will be far more efficient than a stand-alone facility because both the heat and the power it produces will be used — the heat to make paper and the electricity to run the plant.
“It’s a combined heat and power plant,” Norlund said. “We’re not a stand-alone utility that has no use for the heat. We have use for the heat.”
Norlund said the boiler would be 69 percent efficient, in comparison to stand-alone biomass facilities, which are considered 30 percent to 40 percent efficient, according to Environmental Protection Agency calculations.
Information published by the mill says that the new boiler would cut emissions by 19 percent overall — particulate matter by 68 percent, acid gasses by 98 percent, carbon monoxide by 12 percent and sulfur dioxide by 52 percent.
The mill’s material says that the new burner would increase nitrogen oxide by 20 percent.
The protesting environmental groups say the plant would raise carbon dioxide and increase truck traffic.
The increased need for biomass would increase truck traffic by about 20 trucks per day, Norlund said. The mill draws about 80 trucks daily now.
The mill also would use “a little more water, still within our contracted amount,” Norlund said.
The project will create between 40 and 100 construction jobs over an 18-month period, and will create permanent forest harvesting jobs, he added.
The state of Washington considers biomass energy to be “green energy” that is “carbon-neutral.”
The boiler “can help the mill through tough times,” Norlund said.
“You’ve got to leave the mill stronger than when you came.”
Norlund said Nippon sells paper for less now than the company did 15 years ago, when Bill Clinton was in his first term as president.
“This biomass ‘cogen’ would definitely help us remain viable. Without it, you’re just staring at time marching on.”
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Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Leah Leach, managing editor/news, contributed to this story.
