Biogas, produced by anaerobic digestion,

is endorsed as best fuel for Rock-Tenn!

St. Paul Port Authority favors biogas to power Rock-Tenn because it is a renewable technology and would keep jobs in St. Paul.

For more info, see 8/4/08 Star Tribune, Daily Planet and Pioneer Press articles and Minnesota Public Radio, 8/19/08.

YOU can help us . . .

If you have a NAB yard sign & are planning to move or for some other reason, not display the sign, PLEASE contact us by email at:

neighborsagainsttheburner@gmail.com

or by phone at (651) 647-9908 & we will pick up your sign to recycle it. Since we had to pay for the signs, we would like to get as much use from them as possible. Also, if your sign should be stolen, or the stake broken, let us know & we will drop by with a replacement.

And finally, please know that when this campaign is over (when the Rock-Tenn energy source has been decided -- possibly in Fall 2008) we will come by & pick up your NAB sign so that we can keep them out of the garbage stream ... so please save them for us. Thanks for your cooperation!

For a feature story about NAB's founder, Nancy Hone, see Women's Press, July 8, 2008. Click here.

For a Daily Planet feature story on Rock-Tenn, "Burning Questions About Health", click here.

Burning our forests to "create" energy is an unsustainable practice -- LET'S NOT DO IT!

Wise words in May 2008 from Denny Haldeman, Forest Activist:

"People forget where forests come from and how they sustain themselves. There's this thing called nutrient equilibrium where a tree takes more out of the soil than it gives back until a certain age when it is returning more than it took, building soil for forest continuation. Most pine farming in the US is done now at younger and younger ages where they never reach nutrient equilibrium with the host soils. That's why the pine farm industry is using aerial spraying of chemical fertilizers to try to mitigate some of that soil rape. People are being sickened by this wholesale poisoning of the soil and surrounding lands. For more info, see: http://www.socm.org/toxics.html
I planted 880,000 pines in the early 80's when the back was stronger and I thought I was doing something beneficial. The rotations then were 30-45 years between plantings. Southern pines have about a 30 year nutrient equilibrium depending on the site. Rotations now are down to 15-20 years. Plantations are still rapidly replacing native woodlands to try to meet demand. The soils on the Cumberland Plateau, where I live, can support about 3-4 rotations before the soil gives out according to one State Forester who let it slip in a public hearing.
I have also planted in northern Wisconsin where one in three attempts at a hole for a seedling was met with rock. There's a thin brown line between life and death on this planet, a mere few inches thick. That's yet another reason to recycle as much as possible instead of incinerate. If the folks in the Black Hills were serious about forest health, in their wildfire paranoia scams, they would mulch it onsite and return it to the forest floor."

Do we want this to happen again . . .

at Rock-Tenn? You betcha NOT!

Mesabi Daily News On-Line
www.virginiamn.com
Original at: http://tinyurl.com/24evgc

Utilities will likely get MPCA fines
Negotiations continue on manufacturer reimbursement
By JIM ROMSAAS
City Editor
Published: Thursday, March 6, 2008 9:59 PM CST

VIRGINIA - The Virginia and Hibbing public utilities will most likely be fined by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for violating the emission permit on its biomass boilers.

The utilities first notified the MPCA in mid-2007 that malfunctioning equipment was causing them to operate beyond the parameters of their air operating permits. Since then they have been working on a solution, including possible fines.

“The MPCA and the public utilities are close to agreeing to potential fines and a process to modify the air-operating permit in order to be in compliance in the future,’’ according to a joint news release issued Friday by both utilities.

Virginia Mayor Steve Peterson did not want to comment at this time because did not have enough information. He also said he has been out of town and not able to talk to Terry Leoni, general manager for the Virginia utility.

MPCA spokesperson Anne Moore confirmed the negotiations but could not comment on the timeframe or what fines might be forthcoming.

The boiler manufacturer will likely reimburse the utilities for the fine, according to the release.

“Our equipment manufacturers, Foster Wheeler and others, have provided us with technical and monetary support to correct these issues and we are working with Foster Wheeler through a settlement agreement to reimburse the utilities,’’ said Leoni.

The Laurentian Energy Authority, a public authority of the utilities, operates the biomass facilities cities under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Xcel Energy.

“As our new renewable energy biomass plants started up after construction, we experienced several equipment malfunctions in Hibbing and Virginia,’’ said Leoni. “This is common in new plant construction. As our technicians attempted to adjust the operations of the biomass boilers, we exceeded the permitted operating parameters.

In addition, “the MPCA has encouraged us to pursue an air permit amendment,’’ Leoni said in the release. “The original data used to prepare the permit compared our equipment to other dissimilar biomass boilers, which were co-fired with fossil fuels. We uncovered this error, and will now suggest to the MPCA that a modified permit use date from boilers like ours which utilize only biomass as the fuel source.’’

“We are confident that the changes our equipment manufacturer has made along with the permit modifications we are seeking will enable our public utilities to operate within permit parameters going forward,’’ said Jim Kochevar, general manager in Hibbing. “We also believe LEA has offset any excess emissions by the investments in our 1,700 acres of closed loop hybrid poplar tree plantations, which are good for the environment.’’

The Virginia and Hibbing public utilities formed LEA and invested more than $87 million in new biomass renewable electric power facilities in both communities, a new combined renewable fuel handling yard, and almost 1,700 acres of hybrid poplar tree plantations.

LEA now sells 35 megawatts of clean, renewable electric power to Xcel Energy, providing many new jobs in the logging, trucking, and fuel handling industries, along with preserving 70 jobs at the public utilities, the release states. LEA’s renewable energy production is helping Xcel meet Minnesota’s renewable energy mandates.

“This capital investment insured the survival of the two public utilities by creating a new customer, updating our plants, and continuing to produce energy for our customers in the cities of Hibbing and Virginia, said Kochevar.

Jim Romsaas can be reached at jim.romsaas@mx3.com. To read this story and comment on it online go to www.virginiamn.com.

Neighbors Against the Burner invites you to check out these web pages for more specific information about the proposed "waste to energy" incinerator at the St. Paul Rock-Tenn plant. We also offer you extensive research on the hazards of creating energy through incineration. Please visit our "Contact" page if you have further questions.