OLYMPIA — A Thurston County Superior Court judge is expected to render an oral ruling on an appeal of a permit for the Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s $55 million biomass energy project Wednesday.
Judge Thomas McPhee heard testimony Friday on whether the state Department of Ecology’s “notice of construction” adequately assessed impacts to the environment.
Five environmental organizations — Port Townsend AirWatchers, No Biomass Burn, the Olympic Environmental Council, the Western Temperate Rainforest Network and the Olympic Forest Coalition — appealed the permit to the court after losing an appeal to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board last May.
David Mann, a Seattle attorney who represents the environmental groups, was not immediately available for comment Friday.
Ecology spokeswoman Linda Kent said the agency and its attorney will not comment on the case until the matter is resolved.
Two companies on the North Olympic Peninsula are expanding their biomass facilities, which burn wood waste to create steam and generate electricity: Port Townsend Paper, which is building a 24-megawatt facility, and Nippon Paper Industries USA’s mill in Port Angeles, a $71 million project that will create 20 megawatts of electricity.
The company, which does not allow interviews with the media, said on its website that the project is slated to start up in 2013.
Nippon’s $71 million project is set to be completed in April 2013.
Environmental groups have fought the expansions, saying they will increase pollution.
Nippon appeal
The same groups that appealed the Port Townsend permit have been joined by Environmental Law and Policy of Spokane and the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club in appealing a construction permit issued by the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, or ORCCA, for the Nippon project.
The groups lost an appeal of the Nippon permit to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board in January.
A hearing has been scheduled for May 4 in Thurston County Superior Court.
The appellants of Nippon’s project said the mill’s planned controls for nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds fall short of the best available practices required by the Clean Air Act.
The Port Angeles mill, on the other hand, has maintained that its new boiler, which would replace a 1950s-era boiler used solely to produce steam, would reduce most pollutants —when carbon dioxide is not taken into account — while burning about twice as much wood waste.
The pollutants that would increase are nitrogen oxide by 6 tons a year, volatile organic compounds by 36 tons a year and carbon dioxide by 231,000 tons per year, according to ORCAA.
Emissions of particulate matter would decrease by 78 tons a year, carbon monoxide would decrease by 84 tons a year, and sulfur dioxide would decrease by 209 tons a year, the agency said.
Ultra-fine particles
Opponents have questioned the sufficiency of controls on ultra-fine particles created by wood burning for both projects, with concerns discussed at forums and meetings throughout the North Olympic Peninsula, including at Board of Health meetings in both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Ecology said pollutants at the Port Townsend mill will increase by 43 tons a year for carbon monoxide and 1.1 tons a year for volatile organic compounds. Carbon dioxide emissions were not required to be calculated.
The Jefferson County Board of Health is requesting either a new location for a state air-monitoring unit or a second unit to better measure emissions from the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill.
The Clallam County Healthy Air Coalition started a petition drive in January calling for a moratorium on biomass projects.
Port Angeles City Councilman Max Mania proposed last week that the council discuss at a later meeting a moratorium on Nippon’s project until potential health effects are better understood.