PORT ANGELES — A public health hazard and a detriment to the environment, or a renewable energy project that creates jobs?
That’s how opponents and proponents of Nippon Paper Industries USA’s $71 million proposed biomass energy project differed in their views during a hearing on its application for an air quality permit Tuesday evening.
An overflow crowd of 145 people attended the nearly 2½-hour meeting at the Port Angeles Library’s Raymond Carver Room.
The Olympic Clean Air Agency permit for the Port Angeles paper mill’s project will take at least a month to approve or deny, said Director Fran McNair. ORCAA staff members are recommending approval.
The permit is the project’s last regulatory hurdle before construction, Nippon mill manager Harold Norlund has said.
Major construction on the upgrade of Nippon’s present biomass burner would begin three to four months after the permit is approved, Norlund has said.
Speakers at the hearing, 37 in all, came from across the North Olympic Peninsula; some had backgrounds in forestry and environmental activism.
But many had backgrounds nearly as wide-ranging as their views on the project, which would produce 20 megawatts of electricity by burning wood debris from logging sites and wood waste from sawmills.
Speakers were split almost down the middle, with 20 for and 17 against.
Proponents of the project, many of them representatives of the timber industry and local governments, said the project is good for both the economy and the environment.
“We’re simply converting what had been a waste material and burned on-site and turn it into something that is now a usable material,” said Norm Schaaf, Merrill & Ring timberland manager.
Schaaf was referring to the slash — tree tops and other woody debris — stacked on logging sites that is chipped to make biomass fuel.
Proponents said the project creates renewable energy from what would otherwise go unused, reduces slash burning in the forests, creates about 20 jobs and makes the mill more competitive.
“It’s a win for the environment, a win for the mill, a win for our Peninsula communities,” said Richard Cott, who managed the mill when it was owned by Crown Zellerbach.
Opponents said they didn’t buy the argument that it’s better to burn slash at the mill than in the woods and voiced concern over the loss of nutrients to the forest floor and harm to human health.
“It’s really [difficult] to say that concentrated burning of the slash that is now presumably being burned all over the county somehow equals out,” said Shirley Nixon, a Port Angeles resident and environmental attorney.
Scott Wheeler, who has a lung disorder and must use an oxygen tank, said the issue hits close to home.
“I think it’s a bad place to put it,” he said. “Everyone is downwind of it.”
The new boiler— which would be used for both steam generation and power that could be sold for credits— would replace the 1950s-era boiler Nippon currently uses.
It would burn 160,000 bone-dry tons of biomass — about double of what is now consumed — but according to ORCAA, the more modern boiler would result in a decrease for most pollutants.
Emissions of particulate matter would decrease by 78 tons a year, carbon monoxide would decrease by 84 tons a year, and sulfur dioxide would decrease by 209 tons a year, ORCAA said.
At the same time, emissions of nitrogen oxide would increase by 6 tons a year, volatile organic compounds would increase by 36 tons a year, and carbon dioxide emissions would increase by 231,000 tons a year.
Doctors who spoke were split on the issue.
Dr. Penny Burdick of Sequim said emissions would permanently damage lungs.
“You breathe in the air, you breathe in the particles,” she said.
“The air comes out; the particles stay.”
Dr. Karl Spees of Port Angeles said some environmentalists were using “junk science.”
“The Nippon biomass cogenerator’s benefits far exceed its hypothetical risks,” he said.
Bob Lynette of the Sierra Club criticized the figures used by ORCAA and claimed pollution would actually increase by 30 percent.
ORCAA Engineer Geoffrey Glass said Nippon provided the figures through its environmental impact study. Those figures then were vetted by the agency.
Paul Perlwitz, Nippon environmental manager, told the Peninsula Daily News that it based its current emission during times of high production over the past 10 years.
The emissions projected after the project is finished are also based on the mill running at high capacity, he said.
Nippon expects the boiler to be in place toward the end of 2013.
Environmental groups have tried to stop Nippon’s project, as well as a $55 million biomass boiler upgrade at Port Townsend Paper Corp. that would produce up to 24 megawatts of electricity.
Several groups appealed a shoreline development permit approved by the city Planning Commission in September to the City Council.
The council upheld the permit in December.
Environmental groups also have appealed Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s proposed biomass energy project to the state Pollution Control Board.
That appeal will be heard June 2-3.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
