PORT TOWNSEND — Those who want to comment about the potential environmental effects of a $55 million biomass cogeneration facility proposed for the Port Townsend mill have been given another two weeks to do so.
The state Department of Ecology is calling for comments on the proposed facility’s compliance with the State Environmental Policy Act — or SEPA — saying that it is correcting an oversight.
“We are not extending the comment period,” for all topics pertaining to the proposed facility, said Ecology spokesperson Kim Schmanke on Wednesday.
“We are only allowing for a part of the process that should have been done in the first place.”
Written comment will be accepted through Oct. 8.
The project, in which the mill’s main boiler would be converted to use waste wood from the North Olympic Peninsula, would generate electrical power while cutting some emissions — and raising others — and providing up to 25 megawatts of electricity for sale.
Shmanke said that comment on SEPA compliance should have operated in parallel with the period for a proposed order from Ecology that would permit Port Townsend Paper Corp., to begin work on the biomass boiler.
The additional two-week period, she said, will rectify the oversight.
Several people, including Gretchen Brewer of Port Townsend Air Watchers, had said that the state should have held a SEPA public comment period.
More than 100 comments have been submitted during the public comment period — which was extended once and which ended last month — on the Ecology “notice of construction.
Ecology has been working to provide a response to those comments since then, Schmanke said.
Shmanke said the decision to approve or disapprove the project could be announced “as soon as a few weeks” after the Oct. 8 comment deadline.
SEPA approval begins with an environmental checklist that asks questions about the proposal and its potential impacts on the environment.
The elements of the environment that will be evaluated include earth, air, water, plants, animals, energy, environmental health, land use, transportation, public services, and utilities.
Anything pertaining to these topics is fair game for the current comment period, Schmanke said.
Mill officials expect to begin construction by the end of the year, with the new system to be in operation by mid-2012, according to a mill brochure that said that about $10 million in pollution control equipment would be added as part of the upgrade.
Mill officials have said the project would help the mill retain its existing 209 jobs while creating 108 temporary jobs.
Supporters of the project say it will generate “clean” energy.
Opponents feel that it will add to pollution and deplete natural resources, as the facility would require waste materials that are needed to replenish the forests from which it is removed.
Seattle activist Duff Badgley of No Biomass Burn — who also was the Green Party’s 2008 gubernatorial candidate — said he intends to fight biomass projects throughout the state, including that proposed in Port Townsend.
He said last week that he planned to appeal the Port Angeles Planning Commission’s approval of permits for the upgrade of Nippon Paper Industries USA’s biomass boiler, although he had not decided upon the basis of the appeal to the Port Angeles City Council.
Schmanke said that comments will not be answered individually, but the questions are aggregated and answered together.
“We always like to hear about aspects about the project that we might not know about,” she said.
“A lot of this has to do with local history, relating the success or failure of a similar project that occurred in the past.”
Schmanke said once the comments are gathered they will be combined with those already gathered to generate a single report.
The public was invited to comment in person about the construction permit at Fort Worden on Aug. 17, but no event is scheduled for the SEPA comments.
No oral comments will be accepted, but those in writing can be sent three ways:
• By mail, to Marc Heffner, Department of Ecology, PO Box 47600, Olympia WA 98504-7600.
• By e-mail to mhef461@eyc.wa.gov.
• By fax to 360 407-6012.
For more information, visit the state’s website at ecy.wa.gov, check for documents at the Port Townsend Public Library or phone 360-407-7393.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
