SEQUIM — The City Council directed the city attorney to write a second letter to the state’s Olympic Region Clean Air Agency for an air monitoring station somewhere in the city, despite a lukewarm response to its first request.
The council has asked for an air monitoring station after hearing concerns from residents about the expansion of the biomass cogeneration plant at the Nippon Paper Industries USA paper mill in Port Angeles.
Nippon’s $71 million biomass energy project is expected to be completed by April 2013.
Council members said Monday they understand the monitor may not be completely necessary but said city residents have the right to know how good or bad the air they breathe is.
City leaders attended an ORCAA meeting June 26, where they were told any particulates from the Nippon biomass burner in Port Angeles will fall out of the atmosphere within 3 miles of the plant and pose no threat to Sequim residents.
If a new monitor is approved, it will likely be placed in Olympia, they were told.
Council members expressed frustration that ORCAA told them there is no funding for a new monitor, but the agency recently had freed up $50,000 for additional monitors.
Councilman Ted Miller said ORCAA members added that Sequim may indeed have poor air quality, but the problem most likely stems from unregulated fireplaces and wood-burning stoves in the city.
If the city were to get a monitor from ORCAA, it likely would be configured to test for those types of air particulates and not the tiny, 2.5 micron and smaller particulates that residents are concerned about, Miller said.
If the city cannot get a monitoring station, council members suggested the city may pay for air quality tests, before and after the Nippon plant goes online.
Councilman Erik Erichsen, a retired particle physicist, disagreed with the council and said he does not believe the particles the council wants to test for can be found with affordable testing.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
