The second round of appeals for a biomass energy project in Port Angeles has begun, while opponents await a separate state hearing on an appeal filed in November against a biomass project proposed in Port Townsend.
Six of the seven environmental groups that lost an appeal of the shoreline substantial development permit that the city of Port Angeles gave Nippon Paper Industries USA are taking their case to the state Shoreline Hearings Board.
An appeal was filed Friday.
Five of those environmental groups filed an appeal with the state Pollution Control Hearings Board in November against a proposed $55 million upgrade of the Port Townsend biomass facility, which is expected to generate up to 24 megawatts of power, which the facility could sell.
That appeal is scheduled to be heard June 2 and 3.
The pollution hearings board has 90 days after the last hearing to make a decision.
The action challenges a permit granted in October by the state Department of Ecology for the Port Townsend mill to construct the upgrade.
The groups appealing the Nippon proposal said the city erred by not requiring the mill to receive a conditional-use permit for its proposed $71 million cogeneration project.
Sue Roberds, city of Port Angeles planning manager, said such a permit is not required because the planned 20-megawatt power plant would not be the “primary” use of the land.
“We look at it as an overall mill site,” she said, “and the production of power enables the mill to function.”
Harold Norlund, mill manager, said Nippon would use the electricity it produces by burning woody biomass.
“The physical electrons never leave the site,” he said.
But the mill also would sell 20 megawatts’ worth of renewable energy credits, since it would be using that much less from the grid, Norlund said.
Port Angeles resident Diana Somerville, a spokeswoman for the groups, said the mill should still have to get the conditional-use permit even if the electricity itself is not leaving the mill.
“That’s just a paperwork shuffle,” she said.
The Shoreline Hearings Board has 180 days to make a decision after an appeal is filed.
Norlund said the mill is still ordering equipment, and expects to have the facility online in August 2012.
The groups appealing the Nippon permit are No Biomass Burn, Port Townsend AirWatchers, World Temperate Rainforest Network, Olympic Environmental Council, Olympic Forest Coalition and the state chapter of the Sierra Club.
The Center for Environmental Policy, which is not part of this appeal, joined the other groups to appeal the shoreline substantial development permit to the City Council. The council upheld the permit last month.
Environmental groups said they plan to file an appeal of the environmental assessment for the Nippon project with the state Pollution Control Hearings Board in the spring.
Appealing the Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s proposed biomass cogeneration project are Port Townsend AirWatchers, No Biomass Burn, World Temperate Rainforest Network, Olympic Environmental Council and Olympic Forest Coalition.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
