Alarm raised over wood burner
Editorial comment: This project is not about electricity generation on Vancouver Island. Nevertheless, it is about burning one form of carbon sink (logs) to generate energy (heat for steam) - same as VIGP (gas to electricity) - and the public opposition to it is essentially the same.
By Darrell Bellaart
Nanaimo News Bulletin
19 August 2004
Coastland Industries' proposal for a wood-burning boiler is generating
opposition among its south Nanaimo neighbours.
Janet Irvine is organizing a letter-writing campaign on the grounds
the burner will create air pollution.
"We're trying to get citizens to write, to use their initiative," said
Irvine, whose Highview Terrace complex is just south of the Haliburton
Street wood mill.
She said she's been inundated with messages since she raised the alarm
about it last week.
"I found out about it simply by fluke, because a neighbour told me
about it."
The public has until Sept. 6 to comment on the proposal.
Coastland hopes to save more than $1 million a year in natural gas
costs by switching to hog fuel (chipped wood), to heat water in vats
used to loosen bark, so it can be stripped from logs.
Even though Coastland plans to use special scrubbers to treat the
burner's emissions, it will still release up to five kilograms of
particulate matter per hour - 660 times the 7.5-gram maximum allowed
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for residential wood
stoves.
Health Canada considers particulate matter a cause of breathing
problems, lung damage and premature death.
Irvine said all Nanaimo residents are at risk.
"This type of pollution travels quite a distance - it doesn't stay in
the south end of Nanaimo," she said.
Jack Stephens, of Coastland, said a 20-metre smokestack would carry
the emissions much farther than a residential chimney, reducing its
harmful effects.
Nor would there be any of the odours associated with burning natural
gas, he said.
Coastland's public notice of the proposal gives emissions in
milligrams per second, but over the course of a year it works out to
more than 43 tonnes of particulate matter.
Stephens said: "I hadn't looked at it that way."
Karl Schirmer, another Highview resident wants city council to go on
record against the application.
"The city has banned backyard burning to keep the air clean, now why
would we allow someone in the city to burn wood," Schirmer said.
Council asked staff to study it, and is requesting an extension on the
30-day time limit, to research the issue.
Meanwhile, Irvine is encouraging residents to direct their concerns to
Environmental Protection regional manager, 2080A Labieux Rd. V9T 6J9.
Irvine questions the August timing of the application.
"In the month of August, both residents and government officials are
on vacation," she said. "It presents fewer opportunities for those
adversely affected to respond."
A spokesman for the provincial ministry could not be reached for
comment.