PORT ANGELES — A Seattle activist has picked Nippon paper mill’s proposed biomass energy project as the first battle in a fight against the burning of wood waste for electricity that he plans to take across the state, including Port Townsend.
Duff Badgley of No Biomass Burn and the Green Party’s 2008 gubernatorial candidate said he intends to appeal the city permits granted last week to the $71 million project.
The Port Angeles Planning Commission approved shoreline management and conditional use permits for the upgrade of Nippon Paper Industries USA’s biomass boiler last Wednesday after a lively public hearing that brought out both supporters and foes of using biomass, which uses wood waste from mills and logging sites, to create energy.
Badgley said Friday that he hadn’t decided the basis for his appeal.
But he said he may contend that the project’s environmental impact statement, used by the Planning Commission when considering approval of the permits, should have addressed its impact on the forests.
“It was a horrific decision by the Planning Commission,” he said.
Sue Roberds, city planning manager, said the purpose of the environmental assessment was solely to assess the project’s local impact.
“We were dealing with the activity on the shoreline and the industrial zone,” she said. “Not the policy of whether biomass is good or bad.”
The appeal, which must be filed by Oct. 6, would be heard by the City Council, Roberds said.
Badgley said Nippon Paper Industries USA’s project is only the start.
He intends to file appeals against the Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s proposed biomass boiler project in Port Townsend and others in the state.
“We’re looking at legal challenge action across the whole state,” he said.
Badgley said No Biomass Burn is his creation, and that he works with about five other environmental organizations in the state that also oppose biomass burning.
They contend that the practice would strip the forest floor of needed nutrients, and challenge its carbon-neutral designation.
Badgley said Nippon’s project is being targeted first because its the farthest along in the permitting process.
Harold Norlund, mill manager, said he doesn’t think the pending appeal, which he called a “bump in the road,” will prevent the project from happening.
“That’s not going to put us behind [schedule],” he said.
“It’s disappointing that they are going to do that because we have a very good project that’s good for Port Angeles, good for the environment, and a significant investment in Port Angeles,” Norlund added.
Nippon also needs air quality permits from the state and waste discharge, storm water and building permits from the city before construction can begin as planned in December. Construction will take about 18 months.
The project would produce 20 megawatts of electricity that the company intends to sell as renewable energy.
It’s one of seven proposed in the state, including one in Port Townsend.
The Port Townsend mill, which currently uses a biomass boiler to produce 15 megawatts of electricity for the facility, would be able to increase that to 25 megawatts.
The excess energy would also be sold to utilities facing renewable energy requirements.
Nippon also already has a biomass boiler, but it only produces steam for the paper-making process.
The Port Townsend biomass upgrade is awaiting an order from the state Department of Ecology.
Company officials expect to begin construction by the end of the year, with the new system to be in operation by mid-2012.
While biomass energy is nothing new in Washington, with 13 electricity-producing boilers already in existence and all but one located at a mill, the state is seeing a surge in proposed projects, said Peter Moulton, state Department of Commerce bioenergy coordinator.
He said that’s because of renewable energy mandates that utilities are facing up and down the West Coast and tax credits offered through the federal stimulus act.
State legislation passed in the last two years also has allowed the state to set up four biomass energy pilot projects — one of them being Nippon — and to enter into long-term biomass supply contracts. Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim introduced the bills.
But will it deplete the forests of needed wood debris and nutrients?
No, says Rachael Jamison, state Department of Natural Resources energy and climate specialist.
Jamison said logging companies are required to leave enough fallen logs to return nutrients to the soil.
Forest slash, the sole source of biomass from logging sites, is not part of that, she said.
Slash includes branches and other wood debris that is usually seen in large piles after an area has been logged.
It’s common practice for the piles to be burned, said Aaron Toso, DNR spokesman.
But how much slash is available to meet the rising demand is not quite known. DNR is in the process of selecting a contractor to conduct a statewide assessment, which it hopes to complete in a year.
Moulton said he has been given no reason to believe that supply will be an issue.
DNR doesn’t prohibit the logging of trees to be burned for energy, Toso said, but that’s not a concern because it’s far more profitable to sell trees for lumber.
Moulton said he doesn’t see that ever changing.
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed removing the carbon-neutral designation for biomass.
The proposed rule includes requirements that biomass producers must measure the amount of carbon they release into the atmosphere just as operators of coal and natural gas plants must do.
Toso said biomass energy is considered carbon-neutral because it emits carbon dioxide that’s part of the Earth’s natural “carbon cycle.”
Bioenergy opponents say that’s flawed thinking because biomass energy burns carbon at a much faster rate than what would occur naturally in the forests.
But since slash piles are typically burned, it doesn’t make much of a difference, said Dave Sjoding, a renewable resources specialist with Washington State University.
“What do we do with our slash piles? We burn them. And we do that for fire safety,” he said.
“If you want a big carbon release, a forest fire is as big as it gets.”
Sjoding also said that it’s cleaner to burn slash in a boiler because of emission controls.
Nippon has received $2 million in federal grants and loans for the proposed boiler, and would receive about $20 million in tax credits through the stimulus bill after it’s completed, Norlund said.
Nippon’s new boiler would burn 160,000 tons of biomass per year, about twice as much as the mill currently uses with its 1950s-era boiler. Pollutants overall would be reduced, according to the environmental assessment.
That assessment did not address carbon emissions because the project is considered carbon-neutral.
The Port Townsend paper mill has been awarded a $2 million Renewable State Energy Program grant from the state Department of Commerce, dispersing federal funds, to upgrade its biomass cogeneration boiler and plant.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
