The Buffalo News : City & RegionMonday, April 7, 2008
City & RegionEnvironmental groups fear Erie, Pa., plant would negatively impact WNY
Tires-to-energy plant planned in Erie; downwind opponents call it an incinerator
By Maki Becker
Just 13 miles across the New York- Pennsylvania border, a developer in Erie wants to build what would be one of the world’s largest “tires-to-energy” plants, where 900 tons of scrap tires would be converted into electricity every day.
Erie Renewable Energy officials say their $245 million plant would “combust” old tires to generate 100 megawatts of electricity.
Opponents of the plant say that it would really be a giant tire incinerator, and they are concerned about the pollutants that would be pumped into the air through its 300-foot smokestack.
They also caution that, in addition to their own community, the impact would likely be felt in Western New York.
“Wind, eventually, goes from west to east,” said Randy Barnes, president of Keep Erie’s Environment Protected, or KEEP, a grass-roots organization formed to fight the plant.
“The last time I checked, you’re east,” he told a Buffalo News reporter. “Some [of the emissions] will fall in Pennsylvania, some will fall in New York, and some will fall in Lake Erie. And we all share the same water to drink out of.”
But Greg Rubino, one of the developers, said Western New Yorkers have nothing to fear.
“We will not have any adverse environmental effect on Buffalo, period,” Rubino said.
Independent studies of wind patterns show that the emissions would blow due south of the plant — and not toward Buffalo, which is northeast of Erie, Rubino said.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Paone, who is based in Cheektowaga, winds generally blow from the west to the east and occasionally from east to west.
Right on the shore, winds can have what is called a “downflow,” he said, “and they get a situation of a southerly wind developing.”
But in general, he said, Buffalo would be considered downwind of Erie.
Erie Renewable argues that turning tires into fuel makes smart use of a waste product and that the process is cleaner than burning coal.
“We’re taking junk and using it,” Rubino said. “We’re cleaning up the environment.”
The plant would be built on a brownfield, just a couple of blocks from the lakeshore, where the International Paper mill used to store logs.
At the energy plant, old tires would be chopped up into smaller pieces, then heated in boilers to create much higher heat. That, in turn, would be used to create steam, which runs a generator to create energy.
Rubino acknowledged that the plant would produce emissions. The plant is expected to release more than 1,500 tons of pollutants every year and more than 8,000 pounds of ash every hour, according to an application for a permit submitted by Erie Renewable.
But the proposed plant would use state-of-the-art air pollution-control equipment to minimize the effect on the environment, according to the permit.
The project initially would require 250 union construction jobs, Rubino said. Once open, the operation would employ 60 people inside the plant. An additional 180 jobs, from security to trucking and technical support, would be generated by the plant, Rubino said.
Opponents of the plant are skeptical of Erie Renewable’s assertions that the plant would be safe. They are worried about the tiny particles that would be released into the air by the combustion process and about the possibility of a major fire at the plant.
“This thing is neither clean nor green,” said KEEP member Dennis Stratton.
The opponents have been trying to rally the public to their side.
“We’re trying to educate the public,” Barnes said. “It’s the best thing we can do. Ninety-nine percent of the time, when people hear about it, they say it’s bad for Erie and it’s bad for anyplace.”
While the plans for the plant have been big news in Erie, very few outside the region have heard about it, and opponents don’t understand why.
“It’s not just an East Side Erie, Pa., issue,” said Bobbi Dzuricky, who lives 11 doors down from the plant site. “It’s an East Coast issue — especially when we’re sitting on one of the five Great Lakes.”
Erie County, N.Y., and Erie County, Pa., share some of the same environmental concerns. Both contain Rust Belt cities pocked with vacant industrial lots in need of cleaning up. They’re both on the shore of Lake Erie, which in recent years has been recovering from pollution problems of yesteryear.
Last month, the federal Environmental Protection Agency named Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua counties, as well as Erie County, Pa., among 345 counties in the nation with air too dirty to breathe.
Canadian government officials already have raised questions about the proposed tires-to- energy plant, but they have been largely ignored in New York until just recently.
“I’m amazed how little information has come out about it,” said Robert M. Ciesielski, chairman of the Sierra Club Niagara Group. The organization issued a letter opposing the proposed plant last month.
Ciesielski questioned the technology that would be used to turn the tires into electricity.
“The emissions are the main problem,” he said. “We feel it’s quite akin to coal emissions, perhaps even worse.”
In addition to the Sierra Club Niagara Group, two professors from Fredonia State College, Sherri A. Mason, an atmospheric chemist, and Timothy R. Strakosh, a hydrobiologist, recently led a group of environmental science students in a project examining the plant’s potential impact.
Mason, coordinator of Fredonia State’s environmental sciences program, has gone even further, acting as an air-quality expert for KEEP. The burning of tires, Mason said, no matter how it is done, emits two dangerous substances into the air: dioxin, which she described as “the most toxic substance known to man,” and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — a close second in toxicity, she said.
The plant’s permit application shows that it would produce 0.1 ounce of dioxin per year. Similar data on PAHs was not immediately available.
Mason said dioxin and PAHs, even in tiny amounts, cause cancer and mutations.
“They also bioaccumulate,” Mason said, which means that they don’t disappear. Rather, she said, “as you go up the food chain, you find higher and higher concentrations.”
There are just two electric plants in the country that are totally dependent on tires. The Erie plant would be more than double the size of each of those.
The plant needs approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. A decision is not expected until late summer or early fall. It does not need federal approval because the land already has been zoned heavy industrial.
Although consultation with other affected states is not required, DEP spokeswoman Freda Tarbell said, “We’re not shy about doing that.”
Distributed without profit to ESA Great Lakes members, Wyldewood Surf Club, The Bridge Crew, the Toronto Lighthouse Crew, and the Toronto Bluffers Crew for environmental education
Magilla Schaus:
My zip code area in western New York State has one of the highest rspiratory disease rates from polluted air. This article has me saying, "Ahhhh great!" This is said in a sarcastic tone. The emissions from this tire incinerator will also end up across Lake Erie on SW wind days on the north shores and in Toronto.
These opinions are those of Magilla Schaus and do not officially represent those of the Eastern Surfing Association.
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