PORT TOWNSEND — Biomass fuel may not actually be a “green” technology, says a group that is sponsoring meetings at the Masonic Temple tonight and Saturday.
A slide show and presentation are planned from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight, and a community workshop is set from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the temple at 1338 Jefferson St.
The sessions are organized by PT Air Watchers and are co-sponsored by the Olympic Forest Coalition and the Olympic Environmental Council to explore the question of how “green” biomass is.
Duff Badgley of nobiomassburn.org will present a slide show of work by a Cambridge, Mass., pediatrician, Dr. William Sammons, on the health effects of biomass burning.
Both Badgley and Sammons maintain biomass incinerators create more air pollution than coal-fired plants.
Gretchen Brewer of PT AirWatchers said another question has to do with the source of fuel of biomass incinerators — the forests.
She said that hundreds of biomass incinerators are planned across the country and fears there isn’t enough waste slash to fuel them.
“If all the proposed biomass plants are built and go into operation, where are they going to get all the wood to run them?” she asked.
Biomass technology is proposed for Port Townsend Paper mill and the Nippon Paper Industries USA Co.
On a smaller scale, Forks High School expects to be heated through a biomass boiler by the end of this year.
“The point of the presentation is for us to learn,” Brewer said. “If we’re going to go into this, we should go into it with our eyes open.
“I think there are questions that haven’t been explored publicly.”