PORT TOWNSEND — The state Department of Ecology opens a public comment period Wednesday and plans a public hearing June 2 on draft changes in the air operating permit for the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill.
The permit was appealed by Cindy Buxton, a former Port Townsend resident who left to live in Haines, Alaska, after she fell ill when mill fumes filled her home.
She said she is disabled today, with several chemical sensitivities that prevent her from exercising and going into public buildings.
The changes were proposed after the Pollution Control Hearings Board issued an order in 2006 to address Environmental Protection Agency comments.
Ecology reissued Port Townsend Paper’s air permit in January 2007.
A 7 p.m. June 2 public hearing is scheduled at the Fort Worden State Park USO Hall.
Roger Loney, Port Townsend Paper’s senior vice president and general manager, said he was pleased that the approval process is nearing completion.
“The permit is responsive to concerns raised by EPA,” Loney said in a prepared statement. “We appreciate the Department of Ecology’s efforts to work through technically difficult issues. Port Townsend Paper is ready to operate under this new permit.”
The proposed permit includes modifications to air emissions limits, monitoring and reporting and facility-wide general requirements, he said.
“The process has been rigorous,” said Loney. “Finalizing this air permit means the mill will have clear operating parameters. We can provide jobs for our community, and we can now focus on the future — growing our business and working on continuous improvement projects.”
After considering the appeal, the Pollution Control Hearings Board ordered Ecology to revise the permit based on comments Ecology had received from the EPA and reissue the permit after public review.
Among Ecology’s proposed changes:
• More appropriately address compliance assurance monitoring requirements. Specific monitoring requirements for particulate emissions from four units are specified in the permit.
• Properly specify limits and monitoring requirements for sulfur dioxide emissions from a power boiler.
• Clarify national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants monitoring requirements for the wastewater treatment system.
The modified order places limits and requirements on some of the mill’s air emissions.
Merley F. McCall, Ecology’s Industrial Section supervisor, said Monday that he plans to meet today in Port Townsend with representatives of PT AirWatchers, a citizens group advocating the cleanup of air pollution in Port Townsend.
“We’re just going to go through the process,” McCall said.
PT AirWatchers backed Buxton’s appeal of the mill’s air operating permit.
“We had to reshuffle things around in the permit, and I think the permit becomes now more easy to understand,” he said.
Brewer on Monday said in the last permitting round two years ago many public comments were excluded because they were not given according to the “required protocol.”
The Tuesday meeting “is to iron out those details ahead of time,” Brewer said.
Contacted Monday in Alaska, Buxton said Ecology had not contacted her.
“I haven’t seen what they’ve done,” she said of Ecology. “I’m very concerned.”
She said she has been unable to sell her home in Port Townsend and is still “chemically sensitive from a massive chemical exposure.”
“I can’t travel. I get horribly sick.”
Brewer said PT AirWatchers was looking for a new air operating permit for the mill.
“We want to know how it compares to old permits and it will be with the public’s health at interest,” she said, adding that she hopes it contains enough changes to ensure people’s health.
Port Townsend Paper has installed a weather station as a first step in improving air monitoring.
“We are hoping that the new permit addresses many previously under-regulated areas of the mill’s operations,” Brewer said, which include emissions from the mill’s settling ponds, which form some of the most readily identifiable mill odors in town, direct monitoring and enforcement protocol more in line with similar industries that are overseen by regional agencies such as Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency and a better system for responding to citizen complaints.
Copies of the proposed permit and modified order can be accessed at the Port Townsend Public Library, 1220 Lawrence St. The documents are also available at Ecology’s headquarters office in Lacey or by visiting Ecology’s Web site about the Port Townsend Mill: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/industrial/pulp_porttown.html.
The Web site includes supplemental documents related to the mill.
All written comments on the permit and order must be received by 5 p.m. June 15. They can be e-mailed to mhef461@ecy.wa.gov or sent by U.S. mail to Marc Heffner, P.E., Department of Ecology, Industrial Section, P.O. Box 47706, Olympia, WA 98504-7706. They can also be faxed at 360-407-6102.
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
