PORT TOWNSEND — The state Pollution Control Board has effectively denied an appeal of a permit for a $55 million upgrade of the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill’s biomass facility, paving the way for construction to begin later this year.
The state board issued rulings on motions for summary judgement, which were filed before a hearing set next month.
Most rulings were in favor of motions filed by Port Townsend Paper Corp. and the state Department of Ecology.
The fight isn’t over, said Gretchen Brewer, spokeswoman for PT AirWatchers, one of the five environmental groups that appealed a permit granted in October by the state Department of Ecology for the Port Townsend mill to construct the upgrade.
“This represents only one piece of the puzzle,” Brewer said Thursday. “We will continue our efforts to stop the project, and this is not the end of the story.”
Port Townsend Paper Corp. policy is to provide no comments to the media.
The three-member state Pollution Control Board issued the 25-page summary judgement May 10 that the state Department of Ecology did not err in issuing its “determination of nonsignificance” and that the proposed process did not represent a significant modification of current practices.
“Overall, the board concludes that appellants have not met their burden of establishing a genuine issue of fact related to whether Ecology’s DNS [determination of nonsignificance] is clearly erroneous,” the board said in its decision.
The board did not rule on whether the State Environmental Policy Act checklist and Ecology’s determination of nonsignificance failed to adequately consider the ecological impact.
That could possibly lead to a full hearing, Brewer said.
“They threw out almost all the issues, so we’re reviewing it to see what we can do with that,” she said.
“There are a lot of things they did not address with this ruling, such as the effect that a biomass incinerator has on people’s health,” Brewer said.
The groups have 30 days to appeal.
Team Jefferson Member Bill Wise applauded the state board’s ruling.
“This was a straightforward decision,” he said.
“They looked at the facts and the law and came to the right conclusion.”
The reaction comes on the heels of a hearing in Port Angeles on Wednesday before the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency board on Nippon Paper Industries USA’s application for a permit for a $71 million upgrade of its biomass facility.
The hearing on the permit — the last regulatory hurdle for the Port Angeles mill’s project — drew 145 people.
The decision on the permit is expected to take at least a month.
Both the Port Townsend Paper mill and Nippon in Port Angeles plan to expand their biomass facilities, using the wood-burning to produce steam and generate electricity, for which credits can be sold.
The Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s project would generate up to 24 megawatts of electrical power, while Nippon’s would create up to 20 megawatts.
Both are opposed by environmental groups that say burning wood waste for industrial uses increases air and water pollution and threatens the sustainability of ecosystems.
PT AirWatchers and four other groups — No Biomass Burn, the World Temperate Rainforest Network, the Olympic Environmental Council and the Olympic Forest Coalition — had asked the Pollution Control Board to determine that the project was environmentally unsafe and that it would in fact increase pollution levels.
The board based its ruling on seven submitted documents, with motions filed in favor of the project originating from the Department of Ecology and Port Townsend Paper Corp.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach contributed to this report.
