9/27/11 ORCAA/SIMPSON HEARING

Dave McEntee, spokesperson for Simpson

SIMPSON SAYS EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE,
SO IT MUST BE SO

Submitted to Shelton Blog by John Cox Mason County Progressive

Here's a report on the ORCAA Public Hearing for the Simpson Air Pollution Permit renewal.

The mosquito swatters out numbered us mosquitoes about 3 to 1, but we BUZZED nevertheless.

Ten members of the public gave comments. Nine of these were clean air advocates who had various concerns about Simpson's permit renewal. We will post some of these comments later, but for now, in short, the nine concerned citizens wanted less air pollution coming out of Simpson's smokestack and other operations.

The tenth commenter was Dave McEntee, speaking for Simpson, who thought everything was just fine.

Fran McNair. ORCAA Executive Director, presiding

Fran McNair, the local ORCAA boss, ran the meeting. I was watching her face while the comments were being presented to her and saw no reactions to anything said at all. Nada. I wonder if she plays poker.

The most interesting part of our get together occurred AFTER the hearing itself. Some of the local clean air advocates wanted to talk to Dave McEntee to clarify a few of the points bought up during the comment period. He obliged us.

First, I have to say that Dave MCEntee is good at what he does. I have no doubts that he is worth to Simpson whatever Simpson pay$ him to perform.

A couple of the comments during the hearing addressed concerns about the lack of relevant data since the air monitor was moved to its current location downtown Shelton.

At our post meeting get together, Dave told us that the engineer who is apparently responsible for dealing with the pollution data that Simpson collects, has done an analysis and has found no statistically significant difference between the old monitor readings taken from the Mason County Hospital roof, and the readings since April from the new downtown location at the Public Safety Building.

Many of us had doubts about this analysis because of the short time frame involved. Dave insisted that the incinerator has been running all the time since April, so there was enough data available for the analysis to be valid. (Maybe it was running in "idling" mode?)

We think that a valid comparison can only be made when the incinerator is operating at 100% capacity. There is much doubt on the part of the local residents that the incinerator has been operating at 100% much at all since April. When the incinerator is really revved up, it is obvious.

As we understand it, ORCAA permits are based on assuming the worse possible case, i.e. 100% operating capacity. Comparing data with anything less has no real value. It is merely an empty exercise signifying nothing. Dave said he will have the engineer send us a copy of the analysis in question. We are very interested to see how this analysis was done.

Part of my hearing comment to ORCAA concerned the odors many of us have experienced while downtown during heavy incinerator operation. When this was mentioned to Dave, he said that he had never smelled anything bad when the incinerator was operating. Ever.

I reacted with a rather high level of disbelief, so Dave suggested that I call him the next time I think the air smells bad (so we can compare perceptions, I guess?). Will do!

About 40 people attended the hearing at the Civic Center

Still another topic discussed after the hearing was the validity of the standards used by ORCAA. Concerned citizens were saying that they do not reflect current scientific studies, while Dave was insisting they do. He confided that he has such great faith in the ORCAA process that he and his family actually live within 1 mile of the Tacoma incinerator. No problem.

Everything is just fine.

Photos by Christine