Environmental groups and residents are pushing back against a wood pellet production facility proposed on the south end of the Olympic Peninsula, the second plant of its kind approved in southwest Washington.
Conservation groups are challenging an air quality permit for the proposed wood pellet mill, arguing the approval is based on faulty data and that the plant will cause more pollution than its backers claim. Animal Feed Mixer Machine
Friends of Grays Harbor, Grays Harbor Audubon, Twin Harbors Waterkeeper, Natural Resources Defense Council and Wild Orca filed an appeal over the project’s permitting last week with the state’s Pollution Control Hearings Board .
The appeal was filed against the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, which approved the application, Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy, the company behind the plant, and the city of Hoquiam, where the facility would be located. The environmental groups are asking that the approved permit be canceled until the emissions calculations and environmental impacts are updated.
“The permit calculations are just wrong and vastly underestimate the amount of hazards that will be released,” said Kristen Boyles, attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that’s representing the groups in the appeal.
Wood pellet production has grown across the country in recent years, but the Hoquiam mill would be among the first in the Pacific Northwest. A facility in Longview is under construction.
Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy did not respond to requests for comment but said in its permit application that it hopes to have the Hoquiam site running by early 2025.
Pellets are burned in stoves for home heating and in some cases used by utilities or industry to generate power. According to the permit approval, Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy’s pellets from the Hoquiam site will be held in large silos and then transported to neighboring shipping facilities.
Supporters say pellets are a sustainable and affordable alternative to other fuels, with fewer emissions than natural gas or oil. And they note pellets are often made of sawdust and other wood waste. But critics say the production process is bad for the environment and cast doubt on the emissions benefits.
The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency approved a permit application for Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy’s proposed industrial wood pellet manufacturing plant last month. The planned 60-acre site near the Port of Grays Harbor would produce, store and export up to 440,800 short tons of wood pellets a year, according to the company’s application.
Last April, the project received a $200,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce through a program meant to accelerate manufacturing job growth. The project is supposed to create 53 jobs and generate $155 million in capital investment, according to the department.
The U.S. Forest Service also approved a $300,000 grant for the project as part of their Wood Innovations grant program to expand forestry and lumber-related projects nationwide.
“Washington State and the United States Government are investing in this specific wood products industry project,” Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay wrote in an email, adding the project only got state approval after it met state and federal regulations.
Dan Nelson, a spokesman for the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, said the agency spent months reviewing information about the plant and receiving public comment.
During the comment period, multiple people questioned data used to calculate the plant’s emissions.
The agency reexamined the data used in the initial permit application and still found that it was considered acceptable for this facility, Nelson said.
Looking at similar wood pellet plants in the southeastern United States is not a perfect comparison to the amount of potential emissions in Washington, according to the agency’s response to public comments . Those plants process different types of wood, which can emit air pollution at a “significantly higher rate” than the wood processed in Washington, the agency wrote.
Contingent on its approval, Nelson said the plant will have to follow emissions standards, and the company will be held accountable for meeting the low levels estimated in its application.
Environmental groups and residents aren’t convinced.
Boyles, with Earthjustice, said wood pellet manufacturing causes pollution at all levels.
People who live nearby breathe in dust and fine particles from the plants, she said, and the noise can be a hazard or nuisance to nearby schools or wildlife. Boyles added she would anticipate pressure to log more of the nearby lands for wood to create the pellets.
“The idea that this is somehow a renewable energy source and that it’s helping our climate is just incorrect,” she said.
During a public comment, 30 people raised similar concerns .
At a Department of Commerce hearing earlier this month, Grays Harbor resident Liz Ellis said people living nearby are worried about their home values going down and poor health outcomes going up.
“Where’s the accountability?” Ellis said. “And at what cost to my community for 50 jobs?”
There is no timeline yet for the appeal, but Boyles said it will likely go in front of the Pollution Control Hearings Board within the next year.
In that time, the plant can keep moving forward with construction unless the appellants ask the board to pause it, which Boyles said the opponents are considering.
by Laurel Demkovich, Washington State Standard June 20, 2024
by Laurel Demkovich, Washington State Standard June 20, 2024
Environmental groups and residents are pushing back against a wood pellet production facility proposed on the south end of the Olympic Peninsula, the second plant of its kind approved in southwest Washington.
Conservation groups are challenging an air quality permit for the proposed wood pellet mill, arguing the approval is based on faulty data and that the plant will cause more pollution than its backers claim.
Friends of Grays Harbor, Grays Harbor Audubon, Twin Harbors Waterkeeper, Natural Resources Defense Council and Wild Orca filed an appeal over the project’s permitting last week with the state’s Pollution Control Hearings Board.
The appeal was filed against the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, which approved the application, Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy, the company behind the plant, and the city of Hoquiam, where the facility would be located. The environmental groups are asking that the approved permit be canceled until the emissions calculations and environmental impacts are updated.
“The permit calculations are just wrong and vastly underestimate the amount of hazards that will be released,” said Kristen Boyles, attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that’s representing the groups in the appeal.
Wood pellet production has grown across the country in recent years, but the Hoquiam mill would be among the first in the Pacific Northwest. A facility in Longview is under construction.
Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy did not respond to requests for comment but said in its permit application that it hopes to have the Hoquiam site running by early 2025.
Pellets are burned in stoves for home heating and in some cases used by utilities or industry to generate power. According to the permit approval, Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy’s pellets from the Hoquiam site will be held in large silos and then transported to neighboring shipping facilities.
Supporters say pellets are a sustainable and affordable alternative to other fuels, with fewer emissions than natural gas or oil. And they note pellets are often made of sawdust and other wood waste. But critics say the production process is bad for the environment and cast doubt on the emissions benefits.
The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency approved a permit application for Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy’s proposed industrial wood pellet manufacturing plant last month. The planned 60-acre site near the Port of Grays Harbor would produce, store and export up to 440,800 short tons of wood pellets a year, according to the company’s application.
Last April, the project received a $200,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce through a program meant to accelerate manufacturing job growth. The project is supposed to create 53 jobs and generate $155 million in capital investment, according to the department.
The U.S. Forest Service also approved a $300,000 grant for the project as part of their Wood Innovations grant program to expand forestry and lumber-related projects nationwide.
“Washington State and the United States Government are investing in this specific wood products industry project,” Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay wrote in an email, adding the project only got state approval after it met state and federal regulations.
Dan Nelson, a spokesman for the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, said the agency spent months reviewing information about the plant and receiving public comment.
During the comment period, multiple people questioned data used to calculate the plant’s emissions.
The agency reexamined the data used in the initial permit application and still found that it was considered acceptable for this facility, Nelson said.
Looking at similar wood pellet plants in the southeastern United States is not a perfect comparison to the amount of potential emissions in Washington, according to the agency’s response to public comments. Those plants process different types of wood, which can emit air pollution at a “significantly higher rate” than the wood processed in Washington, the agency wrote.
Contingent on its approval, Nelson said the plant will have to follow emissions standards, and the company will be held accountable for meeting the low levels estimated in its application.
Environmental groups and residents aren’t convinced.
Boyles, with Earthjustice, said wood pellet manufacturing causes pollution at all levels.
People who live nearby breathe in dust and fine particles from the plants, she said, and the noise can be a hazard or nuisance to nearby schools or wildlife. Boyles added she would anticipate pressure to log more of the nearby lands for wood to create the pellets.
“The idea that this is somehow a renewable energy source and that it’s helping our climate is just incorrect,” she said.
During a public comment, 30 people raised similar concerns.
At a Department of Commerce hearing earlier this month, Grays Harbor resident Liz Ellis said people living nearby are worried about their home values going down and poor health outcomes going up.
“Where’s the accountability?” Ellis said. “And at what cost to my community for 50 jobs?”
There is no timeline yet for the appeal, but Boyles said it will likely go in front of the Pollution Control Hearings Board within the next year.
In that time, the plant can keep moving forward with construction unless the appellants ask the board to pause it, which Boyles said the opponents are considering.
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Laurel joined States Newsroom in 2023 after almost three years as a statehouse reporter for the Spokesman-Review. She covers state government, the Legislature and all other Olympia news.
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