PORT TOWNSEND — Opponents of biomass projects in Port Townsend and Port Angeles will host a presentation by Dr. Bill Sammons, a Massachusetts pediatrician who has testified to congressional committees against the use of wood waste combustion, on Wednesday.
The presentation will be at 7 p.m. at the Port Townsend Community Center at Lawrence and Tyler streets in Port Townsend.
It is free and open to the public, said Gretchen Brewer, director of PT AirWatchers, which is sponsoring the presentation with North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club, Olympic Environmental Council and Olympic Forest Coalition.
The environmental groups are among those that protest Port Townsend Paper mill’s $55 million biomass expansion project and Nippon Paper Industries USA Co.’s $71 million cogeneration expansion project in Port Angeles.
Both will burn wood waste from logging sites and sawmills.
The Nippon boiler expansion, which is expected to be completed in early 2013, will produce up to 20 megawatts of electricity. The company could then sell credits for the electrical power.
The Port Townsend project will create up to 25 megawatts of electrical power for which credits could be sold.
Brewer said that a hearing in the Thurston County Superior Court hearing has been set for Dec. 8 on a petition for review of a state Pollution Control Hearings Board ruling in May that favored the Port Townsend mill’s project.
The petition was filed by Port Townsend AirWatchers, No Biomass Burn, the Olympic Environmental Council, the Western Temperate Rainforest Network and Olympic Forest Coalition.
“We are really privileged to have Dr. Sammons visit,” Brewer said. “This is a unique opportunity to get scientifically based information directly from an expert.
“We hope that he can answer questions and clear up misconceptions that our community has had about biomass since the Port Townsend Paper biomass project was announced.”
When biomass projects began springing up across the nation, Sammons, a board-certified pediatrician specializing in the behavior and development of children, began exploring the effects of biomass burning on his young patients and others.
For the past two years, Sammons has traveled around the country supporting citizen groups in more than 20 states in their fights against biomass incinerators, PT AirWatchers said, adding that he is presently involved in efforts in 14 states.
Over the past few years, he has testified before the Canadian Parliament, met with staffs of more than 50 U.S. congressional representatives, testified before the U>S. Senate Finance Committee, and supplied information to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy Committee, PT AirWatchers said.
He has helped to craft legislation introduced in three states, and played a role in placing an initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts that resulted in a change of regulations for renewable energy credits.
“A lot of people in Port Townsend have been feeling the need for deeper, more comprehensive facts about biomass air pollution,” said Ruth Apter of PT AirWatchers in a statement.
“Residents want to know whether Washington state is adequately addressing the issues of public health, forest sustainability, and the environment.”
For more information about Sammons’ Wednesday presentation, email ptairwatchers.org or phone Elaine Bailey at 360-379-9889.
