State of pollution

“Wood pellet industry on fire in Arkansas.” Asa Hutchinson

On Feb 16, 2021, Gov. Hutchinson wrote about the “benefits” of wood pellet mills for the Natural State. “Wood pellets are a sustainable fuel and produce fewer carbons, which makes the pellets a clean source of energy. Pellet plants need wood. Arkansas has wood. The plants need employees. Arkansas offers a solid workforce,” he said.

Reality check, the highest and best use of forests for the greater number of people and for the longest time is to let them grow and protect them from loggers and arsonists.

From a public health perspective, the massive air pollution from the construction, operation, and transportation of trees cancels out the governor’s claims.

Forests are not renewable “resources,” they are invaluable treasures needed to mitigate the climate emergency. Forests remove carbon dioxide and provide water, food, homes for birds and other wildlife, and the microscopic fungal network under the forest soil.

People choosing to live and visit the Natural State seek a peaceful healthy environment. Logging trucks on rural roads, fine particulate matter PM-2.5 from road traffic, and constant noise will destroy the tourism economy.

America’s forests at risk

An April 19, 2021 headline in The New York Times, “There’s a booming business in America’s forests,” is alarming. Drax’s CEO, Will Gardiner, has turned the world upside down with false claims of carbon emission reductions. Gardiner will meet world leaders in November at the United Nations Climate Change Conference with nothing to show.

Drax is a scam solving the wrong problems. The real problem is reducing carbon emissions at the power station, but all Gardiner has done is find a way to transport the wood pellets. Just to transport pellets from the US to the UK, Drax has ports, trains, and bulk storage domes maintaining a 24/7 flow of pellets, feeding the UK power station with 130,000 tonnes per week from the Port of Immingham. The wood pellet supply chain creates massive amounts of carbon emissions. Gardiner even plans to build massive sailboats.

Clean air

The air you breathe is either clean or dirty. Clean air is what you find in the forests away from power plants and city traffic. Crowded places without green areas have dirty air you can see, sense, and smell. If the sky is blue and your eyes are clear you may have clean air.

Public health for everyone

The World Health Organization defines public health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not only the absence of disease.

Between 2017 and 2019, about 4 in 10 Americans are estimated to have lived in counties with dirty air. Fine particle pollution can get into the blood and can lead to heart attacks or stroke.

A June 2020 Guardian report says, “Air pollution drives higher rates of coronavirus deaths among minority ethnic groups. The UK has legal duty to review air pollution targets, say lawyers.” Burning wood creates PM-2.5 emissions, burning 5 million metric tons of wood pellets per year is insane!

Flawed permit approval process

The Arkansas Air Division of Environmental Quality discarded the attachment to my Drax Biomass public comment. DEQ betrayed the people of Arkansas and the 30,000 likely minority deaths from 40-years of PM-2.5 air pollution from the three pellet mills and the three adjacent sawmills.

DEQ confirmed the receipt of my comment that said “references attached” but the information prepared from studies from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins, and an international study including the top epidemiologists from China ended up in the trash.

Here are some of the highlights: DEQ knew the pellet mills will be built adjacent to 40-acre existing sawmills. Stuart Spencer, the longtime DEQ Air Director joined the law firm representing Drax after signing air permits for the sawmills, including PM-2.5 emissions.

Stuart Spencer requested approval to start construction while the appeal process was in place. The approval was given to avoid “irreparable harm and substantial prejudice” from delays of $21 million in equipment “some of which was already en route from Europe.”

DEQ permits are incremental. Approval to build, approval of requested emissions, insignificant penalties for emissions violations, permit for revised emissions approved, and so on.

Dr. Luis Contreras