G-P mill: Boiler set to make electricity

OLD TOWN – The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has scheduled the public hearing on the newly installed Georgia-Pacific biomass boiler for May 5. That’s more than a month after mill officials have said they hope to be using the boiler to produce electricity.

Mill officials anticipate the boiler’s turbine will be up and running today and expect to make electricity Saturday.

“The project is really complex, so there’s just a lot of different [system checks] that we need to do,” G-P spokeswoman Kelli Manigault said Thursday. “We are a little bit behind schedule, but it’s still excellent news for the mill.”

G-P successfully fired its $27.2 million biomass boiler for the first time last month, but used natural gas for the test while it awaits permission to burn waste wood chips.

“We’ve been burning green wood chips since the 28th and making steam,” Manigault said.

G-P recently applied to the DEP for permission to use construction and demolition debris wood chips as a substitute fuel source because of its cost and availability.

“Basically the steam that we’ve been making reduces the fuel oil that we’ve been burning,” Manigault said. “We’ve already started saving money through that process.”

The construction debris is the cheapest fuel used in boilers of this kind, but some area residents have expressed concern about the effect of emissions on air quality.

The DEP received six letters from residents requesting either Board of Environmental Protection jurisdiction, or a hearing, or both, on the permit. DEP Commissioner Dawn Gallagher, who is the decision-maker in this licensing proceeding, earlier this month granted a public hearing.

“It’s going to be very expensive for us as long as the permit is delayed,” Manigault said.

G-P bought the biomass boiler last year from Montreal-based Boralex, which had been using it at its plant in the town of Athens.

G-P has reassembled the unit at its Old Town paper mill and expects to burn 215,000 tons of fuel a year. The boiler is expected to save the mill $5.9 million a year in energy costs and add four jobs.

Some out-of-state construction and demolition debris provided by Casella Waste Systems Inc. will be used as fuel.

The state has chosen Casella to operate the West Old Town Landfill, causing much controversy among residents in the last year.

Operators of both facilities have stated they want to burn clean demolition wood, not the other byproducts that are part of building demolition debris, such as metal, treated wood and bricks.

The scope of the hearing will not include air quality licensing standards or issues related to the importation of construction and demolition debris from out-of-state sources, according to Gallagher.

The importation of out-of-state debris already is being addressed by the Legislature.

Issues regarding sorting clean wood to use as fuel will be included in the hearing, as well as “other issues which will be identified during the hearing process,” a DEP press release said.

Members of the general public will have the opportunity to testify at the May 5 hearing. The time and place of the hearing have not been announced, but it is expected to be held in the Old Town area.