ORCAA/ADAGE Comment Period Ends 1/31/11

ORCAA Consider the Science!

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Katherine Price

Lovely clear days in winter bring more than a smile to our faces. For those of us in Shelton and Mason County, they also bring bad air! The monitor at the hospital is nearly in the orange; we are not under an official residential burn ban quite yet, but citizens are being asked by ORCAA to voluntarily refrain from burning.

What will days like this be like if there is ever a stinking ADAGE smokestack sitting up on John’s Prairie Rd., freaking exempt from burn bans? What will days like this be like for those of us who live and work downtown Shelton when there is a second stinking SIMPSON, a/k/a SOLOMON, chimney operating during a burn ban? What is downtown like today? Are Simpson and Oly Plywood spewing into the air? And what does Oly Plywood spew, besides steam?

On this beautiful day I would love to run my errands downtown on foot. I am from Idaho; I love a cold crisp day more than a hot sunny one; but five minutes downtown walking anymore, and my eyes start to sting and my chest gets tight.

ORCAA’s own Mr. Robert Moody has stated (and I saved the telephone message), that we are going to get an ORCAA monitor downtown (the one presently at the hospital will be moved). We need to follow-up with him and find out when. We also need to push hard for a monitor at the Mason County Recreational Area as recommended by the illustrious Dr. Yu, not just for when ADAGE gets here, if they do, but for NOW...for the sake of the children who are playing field games at MCRA.

I hope that everyone is reviewing the ORCAA Staff Recommendation for Notice of Construction 10NOC748 in connection with the ADAGE permit. I hope that ORCAA receives hundreds of well thought out and well written comments from our community, and elsewhere.

My first comment letter, just sent to ORCAA, is simply commenting on their public notice, which contains language that is not comforting. I have the entire document to review, and intend to send them comments and documents during the month-long comment period, including the letters from the Mason General Hospital doctors; the May 17, 2010, letter to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid submitted by 88 scientists and doctors; the May 13, 2010, letter from Bio Fuel Watch to the Sierra Club; the June 24, 2009, American Lung Association paper to Waxman and Markey; the American Heart Association circulation titled “Particulate Matter, Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease"; and a host of other scientific papers and data which do not support the building of biomass incinerators.

I have not had a chance to read the whole document from ORCAA but it is on my desk, staring me in the face. A quick review of it failed to provide me with information in connection with the health effects of allowing ADAGE to go on line. Maybe my review was too quick. But what the hell do we need an Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency for if they do not address the health risks of something that is patently not clean? Anyway – that’s my project, I have lots to do before the year ends. I need to read the document with great care to be sure that if ORCAA is really ignoring the health issues, I will then descend on them with words on paper.

Also, if ORCAA fails to account for the diesel trucks coming and going from the plant, and they do not calculate and consider this additional source of particulate matter, then their document fails, and is incomplete, and is worthless to our community. We have previously been told that they would not consider this source of air pollution in their “consideration” of the ADAGE permit. This is absolute bull! To simply only consider the chimney at ADAGE and only what occurs on site, is to throw our community, and the entire state of Washington, under the bus.

We cannot stand for this. ORCAA must consider the whole project and the effect of the whole project. If they only look at ADAGE as though it is inside some sort of bubble, then they might as well do nothing at all, and frankly, they will have done nothing at all...except perhaps serve their corporate masters with extreme loyalty!

Get fierce Mason County, the studies are numerous, the science is overwhelming, and yet ORCAA has given ADAGE a conditional approval. This means that they have not considered the science of the health effects on humans or, worse, that they are not going to consider the science of the health effects on humans.

When we deliver the science to them via mail, I suggest return receipt, even thought it costs a bit more. Then when we attend the public hearings, we can wave our little green return receipts in the air and say “I sent you this on January 3, 2011, and this on January 7, 2011, and this on the 15th of January, 2011, would you please speak to the issues in these comments at this time? Oh, you don’t have a copy? I just happen to have one here, and have put sticky notes where the information I am about to ask you about is located; please, take a minute to familiarize yourself with…”

You get the picture. There are so many smart people opposed to biomass incinerators that I believe we can make it the most important public comment period we have ever had, and the public hearing can be an amazing event if we have adequately prepared ORCAA and ourselves to address these issues.

Lots to do! Keep it light, but pretty fierce I think.

Shelton Blog Note:

ORCAA Comment Period for the ADAGE Permit ends January 31st.
Comments or hearing requests must be submitted in writing by this date.
By Mail: ORCAA, 2940-B Limited Lane NW, Olympia, WA 98502
By Fax: (360) 491-6308
By Email: See specific application on website link below

ORCAA Public Hearings will be held Monday, Jan. 31st, at 1:00 pm & 6:00 pm
in the Main Room of the Shelton Civic Center, 525 West Cota Street, Shelton.

Link to ORCAA Staff Recommendation Documents:
http://www.orcaa.org/public-involvement/staff-recommendations/

All above mentioned documents can be found in "Reference Documents" on the top bar of Shelton Blog.
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