PORT TOWNSEND — A showdown that may come to a head in September is brewing between Jefferson County Public Health Officer Tom Locke and Port Townsend Paper Corp. over a permit for the 3-acre landfill in which the company deposits biomass ash.
Locke, who is also Clallam County’s health officer, is requiring the company to upgrade its landfill permit to include a groundwater-monitoring plan, a guarantee the company will pay for future landfill closure costs and a pledge it will conduct more detailed tests on what’s contained in the ash and how often it’s put into the company’s dump.
He reiterated these points in a July 19 letter to the company in which he said, “The time has come to conclude the permit renewal process” and is requiring the company to submit a new permit application for the landfill by Sept. 15.
The company’s permit was up for renewal Jan. 1, Locke said.
Seattle business and environmental attorney Leslie Nellermoe, representing Port Townsend Paper, said Locke’s “decision to change the manner in which the PTPC landfill is regulated does not have a regulatory or factual basis” in an Oct. 28 correspondence to the health department.
“PTPC intends to challenge this arbitrary decision,” she wrote, adding that the company would like to resolve the issue “without litigation.”
Company Vice President of Human Resources Chuck Madison said late Friday afternoon that no company officials were available to answer questions about the landfill.
Nellermoe could not be reached for comment Saturday.
“To my knowledge, their position has not changed,” Locke said Saturday.
“Their position is they want to continue with the status quo.”
Port Townsend Paper is expanding its biomass cogeneration plant to generate 24 megawatts in a $55 million project slated for completion in 2013.
Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles is also expanding its biomass cogeneration facility to generate 20 megawatts in a $71 million project that’s also slated for completion in 2013.
Nippon already deposits its treated biomass ash in a company landfill that is permitted under requirements contained in the “limited purpose landfill” designation that Locke wants to apply to Port Townsend’s facility, which is permitted as a less-regulated “inert” landfill.
Port Townsend Paper “is the only generator of this kind of waste in the state that has an inert-waste landfill permit for the waste products they generate,” Locke said.
Inert landfills can accept concrete, asphalt, stainless steel, aluminum and some metals — substances that do not have an impact on the surrounding environment, including groundwater, Locke said.
The biomass that is burned at the plant includes wood waste produced by the company, lumber scrap, construction leavings and “urban wood” generated by demolition that is untreated and unpainted, Locke said.
After the biomass is burned, the ash that’s left is washed and deposited wet into the landfill.
The company was granted a change in its landfill permit from limited-purpose status to inert status in 2004 under an expanded definition of inert waste.
In her letter, Nellermoe said the company “demonstrated to the satisfaction of both [the Department of] Ecology and [Jefferson County Public Health] that the wastes are inert.”
The ash that’s generated, the process for disposing of it and the regulations that apply to it have not changed, she said.
“The landfill consistently has operated in compliance with its permit and continues to do so,” Nellermoe said.
“Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the landfill has been monitored for decades. No environmental or human health hazard has been observed. Nothing suggests this will change.”
Over the past eight years, Ecology has become more concerned about the alkaline, or high pH, content of biomass ash as the science of discerning its content has improved, Locke said.
High pH water is unsuitable for drinking or bathing, he said.
Ecology “now has misgivings about certain waste being considered inert, especially things that are highly alkaline, that have a high pH,” Locke said.
“There is more potential for impacting groundwater than we thought it had eight or nine years ago.”
Locke said there is no indication that groundwater under the landfill has been compromised.
But there is no way to really know because the groundwater has not been tested since 2004, he added.
While the health department, not Ecology, permits the landfill, Ecology favors an upgraded permit, Bill Harris, Ecology’s regional solid waste engineer, said Friday.
“We looked at the nature of that particular waste and situations with similar types of waste and said, ‘Yes, this probably shouldn’t be dealt with strictly as an inert-waste landfill,’” he said.
“The permitting of a landfill should flow from what kind of waste is there.”
Locke said the landfill could continue as an inert-status landfill, but only if the permit had the additional conditions provided for under the limited-purpose designation.
Harris said Ecology monitored the groundwater from 1990 to 2004.
“We had not seen any really significant issues with that groundwater monitoring,” Harris said.
“The real issue I would be concerned about is how well is access controlled to the site.”
Wet boiler ash can cause minor skin burns, he said.
“I don’t believe the site is fenced,” Harris said. “It is accessible.
The public health department raised concerns about landfill security in a June 15 landfill inspection report.
Company environmental manager Annika Wallendahl responded Monday in a letter to the agency.
She said company staff conducted a perimeter inspection of the site June 6, posted additional signage and has “undertaken other measures to continue to limit the access to the landfill site.”
If Port Townsend Paper does not apply for an upgraded permit, the company can appeal the requirement to the county Board of Health.
As the county health officer, Locke is the administrative officer of the board.
“Following that appeal, they have the option of going to Superior Court,” Locke said.
The county public health department has received numerous emails expressing concern about the landfill, and the board of health often receives comments from citizens on the topic, Locke said.
The county has posted numerous reports and pieces of correspondence on the issue at www.jeffersoncountypublichealth.org.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
