Rutland (Vermont) Herald  [Printer-friendly version]
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