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Using native waters for cooling biomass plants is wasteful and stresses rivers

• The Russell and Greenfield (Pioneer) biomass plants will be water-cooled, using close to a million gallons of water a day, emitting about 85% of this as steam and discharging the remainder as boiler rinse water that contains large amounts of pollutants. The Russell plant will be withdrawing water from the Westfield River, and will be permitted to take water and discharge waste even during extreme low-flow periods. The air-cooled Springfield (Palmer) plant will use 115,000 gallons of treated drinking water a day for boiler blowdown. Discharges include nutrients that encourage river-clogging algae growth, as well as aluminum and other contaminants that are toxic to fish and other river life. The greatest plant cooling needs occur in summer when low streamflow and high temperatures already stress river flow and native fish.

C&D burning releases dangerous pollutants like arsenic, lead, and mercury

• The construction and demolition (“C&D”) industry relies on visual inspection and manual sorting to separate out pressure-treated wood, which contains arsenic and other toxics, from the fuel-wood supply. Emission controls at the Springfield (Palmer) plant are not sufficient to control emissions of arsenic and lead that exceed health thresholds.
• The entire supply of C&D wood in Massachusetts is not sufficient to meet the needs of the Palmer Biomass plant in Springfield. State documents show that the Palmer plant will be importing C&D debris from other states, some of which have themselves banned its use as fuel.

BIOMASS DEGRADATION OF AIR AND WATER QUALITY

Click here for biomass effects on forestry, and the myth of carbon neutrality

Click here for fact sheets and comment letters on biomass plants in Western MA

• Emissions of particulate matter would be 165 tons per year from the three plants. No safe level can be determined for particulate matter because of its association with cancer and impacts on respiratory health at even low levels. Western Massachusetts is close to exceeding the EPA air quality standard for particulates already. See www.airnow.gov for daily updates on regional air quality.

Biomass burning will increase air pollution in Western Massachusetts

• Western Massachusetts already exceeds EPA’s health standard for ground-level ozone, a pollutant that causes respiratory health problems and damages vegetation. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted during combustion combine with other pollutants to form ozone. Combined emissions of NOx om the Russell, Palmer, and Pioneer biomass plants would be 492 tons per year, not including emissions from the 680 MW of new gas generation being built in Westfield and Ludlow. The plants must purchase Nox offsets, but it is dubious whether sufficient offsets will be available in the region.