Rutland (Vermont) Herald, September 26, 2003

TICONDEROGA TIRE-BURNING PLAN IRKS VERMONT OFFICIALS

By Darren M. Allen, Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER -- Vermont officials on Friday vowed to delay plans by International Paper Co. to conduct tests in which up to 72 tons of shredded tires a day would be burned as fuel for its Ticonderoga, N.Y., plant on the western shores of Lake Champlain.

Gov. James Douglas reacted forcefully to the company's plans, which he first learned about Friday afternoon.

"The governor is outraged at this proposal and is hopeful that the state of New York will put this project on hold and allow our environmental experts the opportunity to visit the paper plant and observe the operation," said Jason Gibbs, the governor's chief spokesman. "We need to determine the impact this might have on our lake and on our air."

The state was officially notified of the company's plans on Sept. 24, according to Vermont environmental officials. And while a plant spokeswoman said International Paper's environmental experts had been in informal contact with Vermont, state officials on Friday could not recall any contact by the company until earlier this week.

"I am told that some months ago, there was some indication that they were contemplating something like this," said Jeffrey Wennberg, Vermont's commissioner of environmental conservation. "There was no further communication, at least to my knowledge."

According to a Sept. 18 letter to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, the plant intends to begin a 30-day trial period of testing emissions from the burning of up to 3 tons of shredded tires an hour at its 30-year-old, 700-employee plant in Ticonderoga, which is about 15 miles downwind of Middlebury.

The company said that it would not exceed the pollution limits established by its current environmental permits, and that it needed to evaluate how the introduction of shredded tires to its mix of fuel oil and tree bark would affect emissions from its main power boiler.

The New York environmental department has yet to issue permission for the tests, according to Donna Wadsworth, the plant's communications manager. On Friday, she said that the most likely timetable calls for testing to begin by the middle of October.

"We welcome an opportunity to sit down with Vermont and include them in the conversation," she said. "There is significant science to support tires as a safe and beneficial fuel. In our request to conduct the trial, we are not asking for any relief from our current permit limits."

That would be welcome news to Vermont officials.

Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., has a long history of involvement with International Paper. As a state senator and as Vermont attorney general, Jeffords led the fight against the company's discharge of toxic sludge into Lake Champlain. As a U.S. senator, Jeffords was also a vocal opponent of the company's previous tire-burning trials in 1997.

On Friday he reacted with surprise and concern.

"I understand that International Paper is again considering the incineration of tires," the senator wrote in a letter to International Paper CEO John Dillon. "The research I am aware of indicates that such burning at certain plants can emit toxic heavy metals … which could pose a threat to Vermonters' health."

Jeffords asked the company to postpone any tests until his staff could meet with International Paper officials.

Wennberg, meanwhile, sent a letter Friday night to the Ticonderoga plant's manager, in which he seeks participation in the proposed burn. He said he asked to have input into how the test is conducted, how the pollutants are measured, and in analyzing the results.

He also requested that the company hold at least one public hearing in Vermont before it would apply for a permanent tire-burning permit.

If the test burning results are favorable to the company, shredded tires could someday account for as much as 5 to 10 percent of the plant's fuel needs, Wadsworth said.

State Auditor Elizabeth Ready, a staunch environmentalist who as a Democratic legislator often fought with International Paper, was outraged Friday with the company's plans.

In a letter to Elizabeth McLain, the Vermont secretary of natural resources, Ready implores the state to intervene.

"You and I know well that Vermont's aggressive participation in permit proceedings surrounding activities at International Paper have resulted in significant environmental protections to air and water quality," she wrote. "Such aggressive participation is exactly what is needed now."

She wanted to make sure that any tests the company may conduct include screenings for arsenic, lead, nickel, mercury, formaldehyde and other carcinogens and heavy metals.

McLain said Friday that she agreed with Ready's concerns and had directed Wennberg to write the letter to the plant manager.

"We absolutely need to have our people there," she said.

The company said that it intended to carefully scrutinize all emissions during the tire burning trials.

"If the trial is successful, and after we share the results with the public and with (Vermont and New York environmental agencies) and it all looks favorable, tire-delivered fuel would provide an alternative to fuel to displace some of the fuel oil," Wadsworth said.

She also said company officials are sensitive to environmental impacts on Vermont, a state, after all, where "a fair number of our management team" and about two dozen plant employees live.

The company's proposal will be available to the public at the town manager's office in Middlebury and at the Agency of Natural Resources Air Pollution Control Office in Waterbury.

Contact Darren Allen at darren.allen@rutlandherald.com

Copyright, 2003, Rutland Herald