A campaign in Vermont to stop a paper mill in neighboring New York from burning scrap tires as fuel has galvanized one of the greenest U.S. states into one of its biggest environmental battles.
SHOREHAM, Vt. — A campaign in Vermont to stop a paper mill in neighboring New York from burning scrap tires as fuel has galvanized one of the greenest U.S. states into one of its biggest environmental battles.
But after a two-year fight, the state appears to be on the verge of defeat.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to approve a request by International Paper Co., the world's largest forest products company, to burn shredded tires with oil at its Ticonderoga mill in New York, near Vermont's border, in a two-week trial next year.
Environmentalists and residents fear northeasterly winds will blow toxins from the tires into Vermont, which boasts the cleanest air in the Northeast.
"How is it not going to hurt us?" asked Renee Ursitti, 39, a librarian in Shoreham, a Vermont village of 1,200 people about 10 miles from the plant. "I'm worried about the health of my 6-year-old."
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New York state regulators could issue a permit 45 days after a Dec. 23 deadline for public comment. The permit hinges on clearance from the EPA, which considers industrial tire-burning a largely efficient and safe way to reduce America's growing mountain of scrap automobile tires.
"The EPA is pretty comfortable to let this permit be issued," said Walter Mugdan, EPA director of Environmental Planning and Protection in New York.
"As long as the facility where the tires are burned is equipped with proper air pollution controls, and that ends up being the $64,000 question, we at the EPA actually think this is a positive thing for the environment," he said. "It gets rid of tires which currently are a real solid-waste problem."
The debate casts light on the swelling number of tires burned as fuel in the United States as industries search for alternatives to costly oil and on whether federal air quality laws are strict enough.
"It's probably the biggest air quality issue that we have encountered," said Brooke Mossman, professor of pathology at the University of Vermont and a specialist in lung diseases caused by asbestos and other inhaled particulates.
GOOD BUT NOT BEST
The United States produces about 290 million scrap tires a year. Of these, up to 140 million become fuel, a nearly six-fold increase from 1990, the Rubber Manufacturers Association says. Cost savings are often big.
International Paper estimates it will save $3.8 million a year in fuel bills by burning 72 tons of tire-derived fuel -- in the form of biscuit-sized chips -- each day in its Ticonderoga oil boiler.
Scrubbers and other pollution controls installed in 1998 will catch dangerous toxins from its 30-year-old boiler, said Donna Wadsworth, a mill spokeswoman.
"It's not just adequate. It's good technology," she said.
But it is not the best available technology, underlining the growing debate over America's air quality and the risk posed by fine particles smaller than 2.5 microns -- a fraction of the thickness of a human hair -- which can cause disease and are tough to regulate.
The emissions are linked to premature deaths from heart and lung disease, chronic bronchitis and asthma.
The EPA began regulating those particles in 1997. But scientists say the standards should be tighter and fine-particle emissions in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago equal or exceed EPA limits.
"One of the problems with the EPA's 2.5-micron standards is that a plant is allowed six days a year when they can exceed it before there is an issue with that plant," said Neil Carman, a former inspector for the Texas Air Board who is now clean air program director at the Sierra Club in Texas.
That worries Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, who fought unsuccessfully to require International Paper to install an electrostatic precipitator, or ESP -- a pollution control device that removes toxic fine particles.
"Most people in Vermont understand the value of burning this source of fuel. We just want it done safely with the latest, most modern equipment," he said.
International Paper says the device would cost up to $15 million and has no plan to install one for the two-week trial, which could take place in May or June.
Source: Reuters
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