PORT ANGELES — Seven environmental groups who are challenging Nippon Paper Industries USA’s proposed biomass power project have withdrawn one of their two appeals filed with the city of Port Angeles.
But that doesn’t mean that they are giving up on anything, Toby Thaler, the groups’ attorney, said Thursday.
The appeal was withdrawn Wednesday.
The groups, three of which are from the North Olympic Peninsula, are appealing Nippon’s $71 million project’s environmental impact statement and shoreline development permit.
Appeal shifts to state board
Instead of challenging both with the city of Port Angeles, they have elected to instead take the appeal of the environmental assessment to the state’s Pollution Control Hearings Board, Thaler said.
“We’re just leaving it to a more appropriate forum,” he said.
Representatives of Nippon and the groups opposed to the biomass project, which would burn wood waste from sawmills and logging sites to produce steam and electricity, were scheduled to provide testimony for and against the validity of the environmental assessment in front of Clallam County Hearing Examiner Chris Melly on Wednesday, Nov. 24.
That hearing has been canceled, said City Manager Kent Myers.
Shoreline permit
The City Council is scheduled to rule on the shoreline permit appeal Tuesday, Dec. 14.
The environmental groups contend that the shoreline management permit should have listed Nippon’s proposal as an electric utility.
Thaler said the environmental assessment will be appealed to the hearing board after the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency approves air-quality permits for the project.
He doesn’t expect that to happen until the spring.
Thaler said the appeal for the environmental assessment was filed with the city because the groups were under a tight deadline to file challenges and it was unclear if it could be challenged to another agency.
Waiting until ORCAA approves its permits gives them more time to prepare the appeal, he said.
Won’t affect project
Harold Norlund, Nippon’s mill manager, said delaying the appeal won’t affect the project.
“It’s not going to set us back,” he said.
The environmental groups — Port Townsend AirWatchers, Olympic Forest Coalition, 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 — said the assessment was incomplete mainly because it didn’t address the possible effect removing wood waste, known as slash, from logging sites, will have on the forests.
Proponents of biomass power said the effect is minimal because slash is usually burned in large piles.
The opposing groups also have said that the environmental impact statement doesn’t require Nippon to meter how much water it uses for the project from the Elwha River and that it inadequately addresses air pollutants — some of which, such as dioxin, would be increased.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
