PORT ANGELES — After hearing an hour of public comment from a standing-room-only crowd, the City Council decided against taking action to further discuss the pollution-related pros and cons of the biomass plant.
A majority of the Port Angeles City Council on Tuesday night voted against a proposed joint meeting with the Sequim City Council on the topic.
Members also did not take action on a freeze of construction of Nippon Paper Industries USA’s expansion of its biomass facility after the city attorney said the city could not do so.
Two dozen people in the council chambers at City Hall were split evenly on the pros and cons of biomass in comments they made during the council’s regular public comment portion of the meeting, which Mayor Cherie Kidd called “the longest public comment period ever.”
More than 100 people were at the meeting, including about a half-dozen Nippon workers who held placards reading “Support Co Gen Save Our Town.”
The workers’ appearance was organized by Nippon and the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers Local 155, union leader Roger Schultz said.
“We want to try to ensure the biomass project keeps on track,” Schiltz said.
After hearing comments, the council:
— Did not take action on a freeze on the ongoing
$71 million expansion of Nippon’s biomass-fed cogeneration plant on Marine Drive.
Councilman Max Mania had said March 20 that
the council should discuss the freeze.
On Tuesday, he said he did not call for a moratorium.
The council could not establish a moratorium if it wanted to, City Attorney Bill Bloor warned.
It “does not have a legal basis” to freeze construction of Nippon’s biomass-burning project, which will burn wood waste to create steam and generate electricity.
That’s because the project is under way, and the city can’t prohibit a project specifically permitted by state and federal laws.
“We can’t go back in time,” Bloor said.
The council took no vote on the issue.
— Voted 5-2 against Mania’s motion that the City Council on May 14 conduct a joint public meeting with the Sequim City Council on biomass cogeneration.
Mania and Councilwoman Sissi Bruch voted in favor of the meeting.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays said Wednesday he doesn’t have “a strong feeling one way or the other” about the council’s decision.
The Sequim council formed a subcommittee to look into issues surrounding biomass, Hays said.
— Did not act on an agenda item on conducting a forum on the issue.
Biomass facilities have stirred concerns over particulate pollution, especially tiny “nanoparticulates” that biomass opponents say can lodge in people’s lungs and which are not separately regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Proponents counter that biomass facilities generate less pollution than conventional plants and that nanoparticulates come from a variety of sources, including wood stoves.
Both Nippon’s project and Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s proposed $55 million biomass project have withstood legal challenges.
Bruch argued that new information about the health impacts of biomass warranted a second look, noting members of the business community favored the Nippon project, but those in the health community are “telling us this is not healthy.”
Ultra-fine particulates “are not yet regulated because the data is new,” said Bob Lynette, co-chair of the North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club.
“Please don’t fall into the trap and start thinking that you have to be 100 percent certain that some of your citizens will die before you act,” he said.
More than once Tuesday night, project proponents accused opponents of “fear-mongering” on a project they said had been thoroughly vetted by state and federal officials.
“Public fear-mongering against our project,” Nippon mill manager Harold Norlund said, “serves no purpose other than hurting the economy.”
“It’s been opposed and appealed,” Port Angeles Realtor Pili Meyer said. “We have other problems to address.”
Council member Pat Downie said the council should not “pull the rug out from under” Nippon.
“We would be sending a damaging message to any business of any kind and any size and consequence if they wanted to take a look at our community to do business,” Downie said.
Clallam County Republican Party Chairman Dick Pilling got loud applause for his comments criticizing “a vocal minority” that doesn’t understand Nippon’s economic impact.
“They would eliminate our jobs, our industry, our way of life,” he said.
“Port Angeles is rapidly aging. Soon, we will be nothing more than a mortician’s waiting room, filled with geezers waiting to punch out.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
