Five environmental groups have taken their case against Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill’s biomass cogeneration project to Thurston County Superior Court.
In Port Angeles, Nippon Paper Industries USA has received an air quality permit from the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency for its biomass cogeneration project, which would create up to 20 megawatts of power.
A hearing on the permit was conducted in Port Angeles in May.
The agency approved it on June 21. ORCAA staff members had recommended approval.
Construction on the Nippon project is expected to be finished in late 2013.
The environmental permit was the last the mill needed for the project.
Harold Norlund, Nippon mill manager, said construction will pick up at the end of the month.
Currently, a truck dumper that will be used to quickly dump biomass is under construction.
Environmental groups opposed to the Nippon project have not yet decided whether they will appeal that permit, said Darlene Schanfald of the Olympic Environmental Council.
That group, along with No Biomass Burn of Seattle, Port Townsend AirWatchers, World Temperate Rainforest Network, Olympic Forest Coalition, Center for Environmental Law and
Policy of Spokane, and the state chapter of the Sierra Club, had appealed the project’s shoreline development permit.
The Port Angeles City Council upheld the permit in December.
The state Shoreline Hearings Board dismissed another appeal of the permit in April.
Port Townsend AirWatchers and four other groups filed June 8 a petition for review by the court of the state Pollution Control Hearings Board’s May ruling that favored the Port
Townsend mill’s $55 million biomass expansion project, said Port Townsend AirWatchers spokeswoman Gretchen Brewer.
The other four groups are No Biomass Burn, Olympic Environmental Council, Western Temperate Rainforest Network and Olympic Forest Coalition.
No date has been set for the hearing, which will be a closed-record hearing, Brewer said.
“So no one can introduce new material,” she said.
“It will all be material from the original appeal to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board.”
The state pollution control board effectively denied in May an appeal of a permit issued by the state Department of Ecology in October for the 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, with most rulings in favor of motions filed by Port Townsend Paper Corp. and Ecology.
The groups are asking the court to set aside the state board’s rulings and declare that an environmental impact statement is needed for the mill’s project.
They said Ecology’s approval of the 25-megawatt project does not properly account for its environmental impacts, including carbon dioxide emissions and effects on the forests and human health.
“This ruling by PCHB completely overlooks the long-term damage to health and debt to the environment that the project necessary entails,” Brewer said in a statement issued last month.
“A key issue for the groups is that Ecology failed to require a thorough study of the project’s environment impacts before allowing the biomass project to go forward,” she said.
The statement referred to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board’s ruling as being “curious” and narrow in scope.
“We hope that this appeal will result in an accurate and responsible ruling on the biomass project that will make [Ecology] do its job to protect people and the environment,” Brewer wrote.
Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s managers have a policy of not commenting to the news media.
