By Bob Lynette
ON THE NORTH Olympic Peninsula, we appreciate breathing our clean, ocean-tinged air.
But with Nippon Paper Industries USA’s Port Angeles mill and Port Townsend Paper Corp. in Port Townsend constructing large biomass boiler projects, people are increasingly concerned about the quality of the air we breathe — and wonder if these projects will impact our health, our farms, rivers and streams.
Here’s what I have learned — we don’t know.
Once fired up, each boiler will burn about 1.3 million pounds a day of mostly wood and wood slash — more than twice the amount they now burn.
Although both will improve their pollution-filtering technologies, the number of emitted ultrafine particles, which pose serious health risks, is unknown.
Ultrafine particles are very poorly filtered out by today’s technologies, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
They can travel for miles downwind, although we don’t know how far or how many.
Once breathed in, they can slip through our body’s defenses and can cause life-threatening problems.
With twice as many elderly people per capita as the rest of Washington state, we’re concerned about where these ultrafine particles land, since it’s the elderly, the very young, and already impaired folks who are at the highest risk.
Local real estate agents and home owners are also concerned.
They know that people looking to relocate here want clean air and a healthy environment.
Currently, we have three certified ambient air monitors that measure particulates on the North Olympic Peninsula.
One is at Neah Bay which doesn’t measure particulates from any of our industrial centers; another is at the Port Angeles Stevens Middle School, upwind of the Nippon plant; and one is at Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend, upwind from Port Townsend Paper.
In short, not a single monitor on the Peninsula measures the particulates from the Nippon or Port Townsend Paper plants.
Reflecting growing citizen concerns, all three high population centers have asked the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency — ORCAA — to act on behalf of their residents:
— The Jefferson County Health Department worked out an agreement with ORCAA for a second monitor.
That request is on hold.
— The Sequim City Council requested that ORCAA place a monitor in Sequim, but that, too, is on hold.
— The Port Angeles City Council asked ORCAA to install a second monitor, or move the existing one, downwind of the Nippon plant.
That is also on hold.
According to ORCAA, it costs $50,000 to $60,000 to purchase a monitor, install it and operate it for three years — less than the cost of a month-long hospital stay for one person.
ORCAA has stated that it does not believe that monitors are needed, cites budget woes for not taking action and wants to update its overall monitoring plan before making any decisions.
But no deadline is set for completing ORCAA’s monitoring plan, and there are no indications that any of the monitors will be funded.
Nobody knows how serious it may be or how many infants, youngsters and seniors may be put at risk.
Theoretical calculations are grossly inadequate and won’t answer these real life concerns.
Measuring what we’re breathing will help us understand whether or not we have a problem.
Something is radically wrong with our system if ORCAA, our cities, counties and Nippon and Port Townsend Paper cannot work collaboratively to figure out a way to fund the air quality monitors needed.
We should all be talking to our community, business, health and political leaders to get this crucially important job done.
We need to know what we are breathing!
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This guest opinion column, published in the Peninsula Daily News on Aug. 31, was written by Bob Lynette, co-chairman of the North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club and a retired engineer.
He lives in Sequim. Email him at windenergy@olypen.com.
