Air may pay price for energy shortages

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Air may pay price for energy shortages

Industries and utilities are turning to dirtier-burning fuels to create extra power and to avoid soaring electricity prices

Monday, March 5, 2001

By Brent Hunsberger of The Oregonian staff

The Northwest's energy crunch packs a wallop that won't show up on your utility bill. But it might irritate your throat or mar your mountain views.

Enviro News News about environmental concerns, ranging from salmon protection and federal logging legislature to urban growth and water quality control. Energy suppliers and large industries are increasingly turning to dirtier-burning fuels to pull them through projected power shortages and rising electricity prices. To stave off blackouts and avoid buying energy on the spot market, utilities and industries across the Northwest plan to fire up hundreds of diesel generators.

The trend has regulators on edge.

Lumber and paper mills switched to diesel, bunker fuel and sawdust this winter to power their equipment after the cost of cleaner-burning natural gas quadrupled in December, utility officials and environmental regulators said. But burning such fuels generates pollutants that hamper visibility, create smog and in some instances cause breathing problems.

In at least one case, the use of generators has backfired.

The city of Bellingham, Wash., filed suit Thursday to shut down Georgia Pacific West's 40 generators at its downtown bayside pulp mill. About 200 nearby residents and downtown businesses have complained about smoke, noise, diesel fumes and watery eyes, City Attorney Joan Hoisington said.

Mill officials announced plans to shut down all but 16 of the 40 generators and said they might have to lay off 400 workers.

The use of the generators elsewhere probably will continue through summer, when ozone levels in Seattle and Portland routinely register near unhealthy levels. Regulators are even worried about visibility in the Columbia River Gorge and the Three Sisters area.

"Summertime is our challenge in maintaining healthy air, and yet that's the very time these units would be operating," said Robert Elliott, executive director of the Southwest Clean Air Agency in Vancouver, Wash. "We may be building up to a scenario where a number of events could come together all at once and cause some exceedences. That's what I'm hoping we can avoid."

In Washington, utilities and large industries have sought permission to fire up nearly 215 diesel-fueled generators to cushion razor-thin power supply margins and to blunt electric bills. Among them: Tacoma Public Utilities, BP Amoco, Equilon and Tesoro Northwest refineries.

Clark Public Utility District in Vancouver is considering setting up 30 generators this summer. Springfield Utility Board has agreed to spend $3 million to lease 18 generators for six months.

Running diesel generators costs half as much as buying power on the open market, projected to cost $300 per kilowatt hour this summer, utility officials said. By comparison, power from Columbia River hydroelectric dams costs about $12 per kilowatt hour, officials said.

Environmental groups fear that industries and utilities are sacrificing the health of nearby residents to avoid paying higher market prices. Switching fuels is short-sighted, they said, when utilities could be investing in cleaner energy sources and promoting conservation by buying energy-efficient light bulbs for customers.

"It's unfortunate that we haven't done more to push renewable energy," said Christine Haggerbaumer of the Oregon Environmental Council. "Diesel is very, very, very nasty stuff."

A 1.5-megawatt generator churns out as much soot as 31 semi-trucks cruising Interstate 5 at 55 mph, according to the Washington Department of Ecology. It also spews, over a year's time, as much nitrogen oxides as 9,000 cars.

In California, diesel exhaust is listed as cancer-causing. It contains nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and fine particles linked to breathing problems.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause acid rain and blur visibility. Even small increases over time can obscure views in the Columbia River Gorge and can harm plants and sensitive Cascade lakes, U.S. Forest Service officials said.

In sunlight and 90-degree temperatures, nitrogen oxides mix with organic pollutants from automobiles, forming ozone, a colorless gas that can hamper breathing, particularly among the elderly, children and asthmatics.

Still, the economics driving fuel conversions are real, power officials said.

Normally, for example, the Chelan County Public Utility District in Eastern Washington draws plenty of power from two Columbia River dams -- so much that it sells excess power to Portland General Electric, Avista and other regional companies. But unusually light mountain snowpacks and steep market prices have forced the district to turn to diesel, a spokeswoman said.

The utility expects to spend $166 per megawatt hour on a generator farm to make sure it can honor long-term contracts without turning to the market.

"We wouldn't do something like this in normal years," district spokeswoman Susan Gillin said, "but 2001 is shaping up to be an abnormal year."

Most of the fuel conversions are being undertaken under less rigorous, or even no, environmental reviews. More stringent federal requirements for state-of-the-art controls won't kick in unless the new fuels are used for more than a year, regulators said. In most cases, state air pollution permits allow manufacturers to switch to dirtier fuels without notification or public review.

But officials said they won't allow generators to burn forever without controls.

In January, Washington Gov. Gary Locke issued an emergency order allowing Tacoma Public Utilities to quickly set up 32 diesel generators. His order came with conditions: The utility must use low-sulfur fuel when possible and eventually must offset its pollution pound for pound by controlling soot from other nearby sources.

"We haven't sacrificed air quality protection," said Larry Altose, a spokesman with the Washington Department of Ecology. "We're just letting them order their equipment and get it delivered while their applications are pending."

In Oregon, Brian Jennison, director of the Lane Air Pollution Control Authority, expects to allow the Springfield Utility Board to fire up 18 generators for at least two months. Jennison asked the utility to gauge emission effects on the Three Sisters Wilderness, a federally protected airshed.

U.S. Forest Service officials object to more than a 5 percent decline in visibility in such areas.

Collins Products in Klamath Falls wants to use diesel fuel as a backup in its gas-fired particleboard drier. The company asked the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to raise limits on the mill's sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

Other industries are looking for cleaner solutions.

West Linn Paper's mill began burning bunker fuel in November, when natural gas prices rose. The company plans to seek state approval to install a natural gas turbine that would produce steam for the mill and electricity to sell on the market. The $100 million investment would produce less pollution than the mill's aging boilers, company officials said.

Some officials insist that the pollution effect from all such changes will be a wash because some industries -- notably aluminum plants -- have cut production or shut down. The Springfield Utility Board paid nearby Globe Metallurgical $4.3 million to close its silicon-smelting furnace until October, saving hundreds of tons of pollution.

"I'm more concerned about the average consumer switching to wood or oil in their home," said Thane Jennings, a DEQ environmental engineer who monitors Collins. "They don't have the sophisticated equipment that (industry) does to operate more cleanly."

You can reach Brent Hunsberger at 503-221-8359 or by e-mail at brenthunsberger@news.oregonian.com.

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer2.ssf?/news/oregonian/01/03/lc_21air05.frame

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 05, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ