Public hearing: Tuesday, June 25, 2019 6:30pm at Fort Worden Commons Link to Ecology’s webpage for more information on this project. We learned late Monday that Ecology will indeed hold a public meeting for live q&a and public comments on Port Townsend Paper’s newest project. Port Townsend Paper’s pulper expansion will allow them to increase their …
Click below for full PDN article: Port Townsend Paper Corporation settles with EPA for violation of Clean Air Act According to a Peninsula Daily News report today, Sunday June 9, 2019, Port Townsend Paper has just been fined $346,000 by the EPA for toxic fumes that have been known to be escaping from …
It’s so tempting to feature a “Horton Hears the Who” image when talking about reporting the mill’s smell or any positive actions, but I suspect that could quickly become like the “One Tin Soldier” song some decades back that like fire became used by all sides in myriad questions to punctuate just how aggrieved they …
Submit your comments by December 20, 2018 to WA Dept of Ecology on their proposed changes to the state’s “Startup-Shutdown-Malfunction” Exemption. The SSM Exemption has been a huge loophole allowing companies like Port Townsend Paper to avoid pollution penalties by attributing excess pollution to “oops” in their operations. In September 2008, the Sierra Club successfully …
How much pollution does Port Townsend Paper spew? Has it gotten any better? The attached table, entitled 2008-2016 PTPC Pollution Indicators to Air-Water-Land presents Port Townsend Paper’s pollution track record for 9 years, from 2008-2016 in a file with easy totals, and a page for each year. More about it below, but first — In …
EPA’s ECHO database (Environmental Compliance History Online) yields some great information once you get exploring around in it. An EPA official showed me that by following the “Facility Search” link, it brought me to a page that combines annual pollution data for Port Townsend Paper that is collected through three EPA programs (TRI, NAAQS and GHG), …
EPA has directed the states to close a loophole in the clean air laws that allowed factories to sidestep responsibility if it could be said that their excess emissions happened when equipment was Starting up, Shutting down or Malfunctioning, aka the “SSM Loophole.” WA Dept of Ecology has an advisory committee, open to anyone, that …
This morning WA Dept of Ecology sent out this letter announcing their final version of their updated implementation of the federal Clean Air Act rules (aka “SIP”=State Implementation Plan). PTAW and numerous other environmental groups submitted comments critiquing it as kow-towing too much to corporate interests (link to comments is in the letter below). You …
” gains made just on paper will be more destructive to protecting the atmosphere than doing nothing in that it will only serve to hide the lack of action and sources of the problem. ” CO2e emission reductions are sorely needed, and needed quickly. … the [potential] benefit [of this plan] is rendered almost to …
www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/rules/wac173442/1510inv.html Chapter 173-442 WAC, Clean Air Rule Chapter 173-441 WAC, Reporting of Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Proposed plan largely exempts some of the most egregious CO2 emitters, such as the Port Townsend Paper Corp, through special considerations (“EITE” or energy-intensive trade-endangered designation), loose and generous cap-and-trade or alternative good works provisions, and blatantly by the …