Vermont Enviro Issues

Well, bless our breathing lungs… International Paper announced yesterday it is not only canceling the test burn of tire chips in its Ticonderoga, NY plant, it’s abandoning the idea altogether. No test. No tires. No pollution. No lung damage. Not now. Not ever.

Turns out they couldn’t burn anywhere near the amount of tire chips they wanted to without exceeding the pollution limits specified in their permit. They were hoping to send 3 tons of tires per hour up in really ugly smoke. But in burning even just a measly ¼ ton they started bumping up against their own safety threshold.

This is total vindication of the point of view that said that without pollution controls this is one really bad idea. And copious thanks are due to everyone who wrote, called, cajoled, begged, pleaded, urged, demanded, implored, and otherwise beseeched International Paper to knock it off and stop being so self-centered. Whether you’re from around here or not, we who are and would have been breathing this junk appreciate the help. Big time. Everybody enjoy a clean lungful of fresh air on me.

So they’re burning tires now at the International Paper plant across the lake. Giant piles of petrochemical compounds going up in toxic smoke that’s going up into our air. Lovely. I’m sure we’re all very excited about the prospect of reduced lung functioning. Let’s all put on haz-mat suits and grill up some particulate-coated veggie burgers to celebrate.

Here's a photo from Saturday's anti-Tire Burn Rally on the Green in Middlebury, Vermont:

What's wrong with this picture? Well, there's no rally in it for one thing. And why might this be, the inquiring protagonist asks? Because the local media report on the rally from which yours truly drew last weeks post got the date wrong and I never verified this important bit of inadvertant misinformation, that's why. My mistake and my humble apologies to anyone who actually turned out for the invisible event this past Saturday. To quote Getrude Stein, there was no there there. On the plus side, however, it was a nice day to suddenly find oneself with nothing to do and the coffee in Carol's Hungry Mind Cafe was quite good.

The actual real correct now-properly-verified date for the tire burn rally is this Saturday the 28th from noon to 3:00 on the Middlebury town green. Really. I swear. If there's no rally on the green this Saturday, International Paper can burn my collection of Neko Case CDs for power...

The International Paper Company’s plan to conduct a test tire burn in the boiler of its Ticonderoga, NY plant continues to lumber toward its scheduled November 6th start date. We Vermonters have just a few weeks left to preserve our inalienable commonwealth rights to clean air.

The good news is that People for Less Pollution is holding a massive rally on the town green in Middlebury, Vermont this Saturday the 21st from Noon to 3:00pm.

If you’re anywhere within breathing distance, please come out and show your support for a healthy atmosphere. A big crowd will send a big message to the would-be polluters at International Paper. There will be food, live music, theater from Bread and Puppet, appearances by Bill McKibben, Senator Jim Jeffords, and others, and a lot more. (Who says you can have fun saving the world?).

For those following the twisted saga of our local International Paper Company plant’s intention to burn tires and sewage sludge in its boiler to save a few bucks on their monthly fuel bill, here’s an update from downwind of the Big Ugly:

Plant officials have announced their intention to conduct their initial test burn sometime in early November. They have to give New York State authorities 30 days notice, and that notice is expected any day now.

To reiterate, as the people living directly in the prevailing atmospheric path of the anticipated pollutant plume (I dare you to say that 10 times fast), we really don’t need to need to breath the airborne garbage the tire burn will produce. And produce it will because International Paper is refusing to install modern pollution control technologies on their smokestack. Even without the tire burn, the facility already produces more than twice as much toxic pollution as all the other polluting facilities in Vermont combined. Cough. Hack. Wheeze.

The battle to prevent International Paper from unnecessarily dirtying Vermont's air and irresponsibly poisoning her citizens continues. This afternoon, Vermont Public Radio aired a story on the latest tire burn developments featuring our very own Scienceman, Martin Wolf (a man who knows his way around paper mill contaminants), explaining just what we've been doing about it. Give it a listen...

Last week’s deadline for the EPA to object to the proposed International Paper Company test burn of tires and sewage sludge in the boiler at their Ticonderoga, NY plant passed without any comment from the EPA. This lack of objection means that International Paper is now free to conduct the test burn, which will send all kinds of big time nasty pollutants (fine particulates, dioxin, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, and benzene to name a few) into Vermont’s air simply because the company refuses to spend a few bucks to install up-to-date pollution prevention equipment on its smokestack.

Now that the last hurdle has been jumped, the company is proceeding with the test burn. Though it needs a couple of weeks to prepare for the burn, the fuse has been lit.

As Jeffrey has noted, here in Vermont these days the roof of our world is dyed deep blue and the sunlight falls through air that’s almost primevally fresh and clear. You could say they’re perfect skies, but they might be a whole lot less so soon. Turns out we’ve got a bit of a potentially unhappy atmospheric situation looming over our home turf. And we need everyone out here in Blogland to lend a quick helping hand. Please read on and come to our aid…