PORT TOWNSEND —
A Thurston County Superior Court judge has upheld a permit for the Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s $55 millions biomass energy project, state Department of Ecology spokeswoman Linda Kent said.
Judge Thomas McPhee heard testimony last Friday, March 23, on whether the state Department of Ecology’s “notice of construction” adequately assessed impacts to the environment.
Five environmental organizations — Port Townsend AirWatchers, No Biomass Burn, the Olympic Environmental Council, the Western Temperate Rainforest Network and the Olympic Forest Coalition — appealed the permit to the court after losing an appeal to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board last May.
The judge on Thursday affirmed the Pollution Control Hearings Board’s summary judgement and found that the permit that Ecology issued in October 2010 adequately addressed the environment impacts, Kent said.
“We take our role in protecting air quality really seriously,” Kent said.
“We’re pleased that the Superior Court, as well as the Pollution Control Hearings Board, reviewed our actions and found them to be sound.”
David Mann, a Seattle attorney who represents the environmental groups, and Gretchen Brewer of Port Townsend AirWatchers, were not immediately available for comment.
No formal court papers with the specifics of the decision had been filed as of Thursday.
30 days to appeal
Kent said the opponents of the project have 30 days to appeal McPhee’s ruling to the state Court of Appeals.
Port Townsend Paper is one of two companies on the North Olympic Peninsula that are expanding their biomass facilities, which burn wood waste to create steam and generate electricity.
The other is Nippon Paper Industries USA, which is building a $71 million cogeneration facility that will create 20 megawatts of electricity at its mill in Port Angeles.
Nippon’s project is set to be completed in April 2013.
The Port Townsend Paper biomass project is a 24-megawatt facility. The company, which does not allow interviews with the media, said on its website that the project is slated to start up in 2013.
Environmental groups have fought the expansions, saying they will increase pollution.
Nippon hearing
The same groups that appealed the Port Townsend permit have been joined by the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club in appealing a construction permit issued by the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, or ORCCA, for the Nippon project.
The groups lost an appeal of the Nippon permit to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board in January.
A hearing has been scheduled for May 4 in Thurston County Superior Court.
The appellants of Nippon’s project said the mill’s planned controls for nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds fall short of the best available practices required by the Clean Air Act.
The Port Angeles mill has maintained that its new boiler, which would replace a 1950s-era boiler used solely to produce steam, would reduce most pollutants —when carbon dioxide is not taken into account — while burning about twice as much wood waste.
Opponents have questioned the sufficiency of controls on ultra-fine particles created by wood burning for both projects, with concerns discussed at forums and meetings throughout the North Olympic Peninsula, including at Board of Health meetings in both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Nippon Mill Manager Harold Norland said in an email that the appellants voluntarily withdrew their appeal of the company’s environmental impact statement and lost on other appeals.
Nippon’s project has “all required permits in place” and is under construction, Norlund said.
Ecology said pollutants at the Port Townsend mill will increase by 43 tons a year for carbon monoxide and 1.1 tons a year for volatile organic compounds. Carbon dioxide emissions were not required to be calculated.
The Jefferson County Board of Health is requesting either a new location for a state air-monitoring unit or a second unit to better measure emissions from the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Paul Gottlieb contributed to this report.
