Comments sought on proposed limits for haze-causing emissions from six Washington industrial plants

Washington State Department of Ecology

Department of Ecology News Release - September 14, 2009

09-225

OLYMPIA – The public is invited to comment on proposed limits for emissions from six industrial plants that cause or contribute to visibility-limiting haze in national parks and wilderness areas.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has directed states to work to reduce regional haze in national parks and wilderness areas in coming decades. As part of this effort, EPA requires certain industrial plants to install Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) if they emit air pollutants that cause or contribute to regional haze.

Visibility-limiting pollutants include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and fine particles.

The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) worked with the plants’ owners to propose emission limits to meet BART requirements. Ecology will accept comments on the proposed limits from Sept. 15 through Nov. 6. A public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. Oct. 27 at Ecology headquarters, 300 Desmond Drive SE, Lacey.

After the hearing, Ecology will issue compliance orders to the plants and submit the limits to EPA for review. Once limits are approved, the plants must implement them within five years.

The six affected facilities are:

The BP Cherry Point Refinery in Whatcom County.
The Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter in Whatcom County.
The Tesoro refinery in Skagit County.
The Lafarge cement plant in Seattle.
The Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill.
The Weyerhaeuser Corp. paper mill in Longview.

You may review the proposed BART decisions and related documents at:

Ecology’s headquarters, 300 Desmond Drive SE, Lacey; for an appointment, contact Stephanie Abraham at 360-407-6326.
Starting Wednesday, Sept. 16, online at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/globalwarm_RegHaze/bart/bartinformation.html .

Copies of specific documents also may be reviewed at these locations:

BP Cherry Point Refinery and Alcoa Intalco Works – Bellingham Public Library, 210 Central Ave.
Tesoro refinery – Mount Vernon City Library, 315 Snoqualmie St.
Lafarge cement plant – Seattle Public Library (Central Library), 1000 Fourth Ave.
Port Townsend Paper – Port Townsend Public Library, 1220 Lawrence St.
Weyerhaeuser – Longview Public Library, 1600 Louisiana St.

Send written comments to Alan Newman, Air Quality Program, Washington Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600. E-mail comments to AQcomments@ecy.wa.gov .

Ecology reviews all comments it receives.

Ecology is conducting a separate public process for BART for the TransAlta coal-fired power plant in Lewis County. The TransAlta plant is the largest stationary source of nitrogen oxide emissions in Washington.

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Media Contact: Kim Schmanke, Ecology communications manager, 360-407-6239; 360-791-9830 cell; kim.schmanke@ecy.wa.gov