Last of DEQ hearings on air permit draws crowd to high school
by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor
The permit process drew one step closer to a decision last week for Wolverine Clean Energy Venture (WCEV) on one front. The co-op, which in May 2006 announced plans to build a 600-megawatt power plant in a mined out portion of the Calcite quarry, is awaiting word on the biggest of the permits it will require, the air quality permit, or permit to install, issued by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). While several hearings were conducted last year in Rogers City and in Lansing on the overall permit, this latest hearing came about because of Wolverine?s request. The co-op plans to use a smaller unit to measure emissions from the power plant in effect changing one portion of the application.
THE CURRENT standard uses the measurement of PM 10, or 10 microns. Wolverine proposes to use a smaller measuring unit that is four times smaller than that required by law, 2.5 microns. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed new rules to use the PM2.5 measurement as part of the Clean Air Act, but the PM 2.5 standard is not required?yet.
Last Thursday?s hearing at Rogers City High School drew around 125 audience members, more than a dozen DEQ engineers, staffers and support personnel, and 15 people who stepped up to the microphone to comment. Vince Helwig, chief of the Air Quality Division of the DEQ, designated as the ?decision maker? for the DEQ, sat at a table facing the audience and the microphone where people offered testimony to him. He didn?t comment on any person?s testimony, but offered instructions before the hearing began.
He reminded the audience that the purpose of the hearing was to listen to comments on Wolverine?s plan to use the measurement 2.5 micrometers to measure particulate matter in plant emissions rather than the larger 10 micrometers measurement. ?If you decide to make other comments we cannot consider them in the permit hearing process. We are not taking comment on the recent Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) report. That was a report given to us and we cannot answer questions because it was written by the MPSC, so we are still in the process of evaluating that,? Helwig said. MARION HART, THE administrative section supervisor for the air quality division of the DEQ, moderated the 50-minute hearing, calling people one at a time to the microphone placed in front of Helwig?s table.
A total of 14 people chose to comment on the permit, and several filled out a comment card, but chose to not speak. Of those 14, 10 spoke in favor of Wolverine and four objected. As the first to speak, Rogers City mayor Beach Hall read into the record a resolution from the city council encouraging the DEQ grant the air quality permit, ?commending Wolverine to submitting to a stricter air quality standard? for its proposed plant. That began nearly 50 minutes of testimony, comments and a little bit of grandstanding in the high school gymnasium.
Steve Kohl, an environmental lawyer from the law firm Warner Norcross and Judd, said although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not made monitoring under PM 2.5 law, the measurement has been recognized as providing a way to monitor the emission the smaller particulates. ?Given that air quality standards do persist, I think it is appropriate that Wolverine propose emission limitations for PM 2.5 for the WCEV project and to demonstrate the future operations of the WCEV facility are consistent with those limitations and will not result in a deterioration of air quality in the Rogers City community below the EPA?s established health-based standards,? he said.
BILL CAMPBELL, A representative from AECom Environment the firm which did the study for Wolverine, said ?this is a clean facility.? ?As they have done throughout the past two or three years that I have been working on this facility, (Wolverine does) evaluations far and beyond what has been required by the law,? Campbell said. He said the citizens of the area are protected, the plant is clean, state of the art, and being supported by a company that has gone ?above and beyond all the way for this facility.?
Milt Very of Rogers City offered some explanation on how small a PM 10 particle is. ?On PM 10, you would have to line up 2,550 of those particles just to equal one inch. On PM 2.5 you would have to have 10,000 particles to equal one inch,? he explained. He said it would be helpful for laypeople to understand those measurements by using a comparison.
Joe Cercone, executive director of the Presque Isle County Development Commission and Economic Development Commission (CDC and EDC) called the Wolverine plant ?without question the largest potential economic development opportunity that we have seen in many, many years.? He said reducing the standard for measurement would be four times more effective than the previous standard. ?I would not support an organization that would destroy the environment that has caused myself and most of the other folks who have moved here, to live in the area. We appreciate the fact that organizations like the Sierra Club and the Michigan Land Use Institute are concerned for our well being. In a perfect world, we would like to see all institutions, all power companies, all manufacturing facilities absolutely green and non-polluting, but we know that is not possible,? Cercone said. In absence of absolute cleanliness, he said the resolution, and the Wolverine application, brought the best technology available.
Jim Przybyla chairman of the Rogers City Community Development Authority said he couldn?t understand how anyone could object to having Wolverine subject themselves to a stricter standard than is the current law. ?If the people who are against this project had been here 100 years ago, there wouldn?t be any Calcite and there wouldn?t be any Rogers City,? he said. Mining of limestone began at Crawford?s Quarry, now part of the Calcite quarry in June of 1912.
AMONG THOSE who spoke against, at least three were from the state level of environmental organizations. An audience member, believed to be associated with the Sierra Club, identified himself as ?Rich Coalbaron? and appeared in the high school lobby with Lee Sprague, an officer in the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club. Both were dressed in black suits with a very tall black stovepipe hat. They offered literature to people coming into the gymnasium and had a table set up in the commons area.
Although Sprague changed out of his costume before offering his comments to the DEQ, ?Coalbaron? stayed in character while he spoke at the microphone. ?I want to thank you for giving me your hard-earned money for the next 50 years,? he said. ?Rogers City is a great place to pollute. It needs to be less pure here in Rogers City and we need to make sure that this place becomes a little more dirty.?
Sprague, the Clean Energy Campaign Manager for the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club who is also a member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, said the Wolverine plant plans to use 86.2 percent of the annual increment of PM 2.5. He was concerned that fugitive dust from unloading ships was not accurately considered nor were other sources of PM 2.5 particulates.
?There are days when the wind will be blowing towards Rogers City, towards the local schools nearby the plant. To use an average fugitive dust number incorporated in the 86.2 percent of allowable PM 2.5 in the area is inaccurate and leaves the possibility that when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction of where the large coal handling operation is going on, that the average will be well above averages used by Wolverine,? he said.
Jackie Fairbanks, of Rogers City reading a letter from Jean Veselenak, who was absent said, ?the toxic fly-ash to be housed in the quarry remains untested.? She said there is ?no clean coal? and that the slogan is a ?betrayal of the people and we as co-op consumers, will be forced to pay to pollute ourselves.?
MORE SUPPORTERS offered their comments at last week?s meeting. John Taratuta, who lives near the Calcite plant, said many of the air quality issues deal with air that is ?imported? from other countries. Michael Centala, who has spoke in favor of Wolverine at each public comment session, said there have been many scientific models presented to the DEQ.
?I spoke with a few of the people from the DEQ and they told me that the 10 microns were based on purely scientific and completely adequate modeling basis, when they consider all types of conditions in the worst case scenario. This is all data that is published. I guess I?m getting tired of all the smoke and mirrors and theatrics raised. When people get pushed into the corner, those theatrics come out,? Centala said. Elizabeth Zimmer agreed with Centala and told Helwig that she felt intimidated in the commons area.
?When I came in here tonight, I felt I was being harassed by the fellows in the tall hats (Sprague and ?Coalbaron?). First they made me feel like they were for the Wolverine power plant and then they proceeded to tell me that we could keep sending them our money for years to come,? she said. Other ?scare tactics? have been used on her as well, she said.
?I just wish they would go home. We don?t go to California or other places and chain ourselves to trees. I just feel they should go home,? Zimm
The Air Quality Division is responsible for regulating sources of air pollutants to minimize adverse effects on human health, the environment and society.