JENNERATIONX
Make room for the DEQ
The month of October in 2008 was so loaded with information and news that I have many times hesitated to synthesize it here. Two major things happened, on October 1st, the Michigan DEQ visited Rogers City for an informational meeting, and public hearings were held October 29th and 30th. At this point, the town and surrounding areas displayed massive support and excitement for the plant. Local residents voluntarily made hundreds of yard signs that said “Lets all Support Wolverine Clean Energy Venture,” every city street was lined with them as well as many rural roads. The Advance alerted everyone to the informational meeting at the high school on October 1st. The meeting was 4 hours long, people came and went, listening to questions being answered by a panel of scientists from the DEQ. If you wished to submit a question, they asked you to fill out a little card with the question and the questions would be picked and answered. If you wished to directly ask a question, there was a microphone available. There was also a table filled with documents including the DEQ’s assessment of the proposed plant. 
I was impressed by the presentation by the DEQ. They were very professional and kind even though many of the questions posed to them by the environmental groups were downright insulting. The Advance offered a series in four parts of the questions and answers that took place at the meeting. Part one can be seen here. Part two here, and part three had some notable exchanges in it.
Question: Although there are no regulations on carbon dioxide emissions today, what happens to the Woverine plant if the federal government decides to regulate carbon dioxide emissions in the future?
(Mary Ann Dolehanty, DEQ acting permit section supervisor) – “We did not attempt to quantify carbon dioxide emissions in regards to this plant. We did not attempt to put limits in the permit. What the state of Michigan has elected to do is to approach this from a broad-based perspective. Through an executive order by the governor there was established the Michigan Climate Action Council. That council is charged with coming up with recommendations for where our state is going to go in relation to carbon dioxide regulations. What we may be looking at is new laws, regulations or rules that we have to operate under. If that were to happen, (Wolverine) would be subject to that and would have to make any modifications to comply with those rules.”
Question: –What is the environmental impact of mercury emissions?
(Sills) –“The environmental impacts of mercury exposure is very low in the air. In fact thousands of times lower than a level that can be estimated to cause any health effects. Accumulation levels in fish are on the order of about .004 parts per million which is roughly about 100 times lower than a level than probably is existing in fish now in this area which is still lower yet than levels that become of concern for the DEQ as a trigger to issue fish consumption advisories. “So this would be a very small increment to the levels that already exist and are naturally occurring in fish. It is not enough to bump it up over and get to a level of concern and this is looking at the most highly impacted lake, which is Swan Lake about three miles east of the facility.”
Part 4 to me, is the most notable back and forth both because it answers questions that will become relevant later in this series, and it debunks a lot of issues the outside groups had been insisting on arguing about. This one is my favorite.
Question—Having established that you are qualified to conduct this permit process, and given your extensive review and the conditions established in the draft permit, do those conditions effectively protect the community of Rogers City and the county of Presque Isle? I would like each of you to answer this.
(Byrnes)—“Yes.” (Julie Brunner, P.E. DEQ senior environmental engineer, permit section)—“Yes.” (Haywood)—“Yes.” (Sills)—“Yes.” (Rogers)—“If they comply with it.”
I attended one of meetings of the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture Support Group within the next following weeks. I personally was surprised at the attitudes of a few leaders there. They believed that the coal plant was inevitable and that the environmental groups didn’t have any fight left in them. However everyone was gearing up for the public hearings at the end of the month.
Shortly thereafter, the AndersonEconomic group gave it’s study results of the economic impact of the inclusion of biomass to the coal plant’s mix of alternative fuels. Remember, the initial economic impact study did not include biomass. The study looked at the expected job creation depending on how much biomass the company would include. With just 5 percent usage of the natural materials, 54 jobs could be created within the four counties of Alpena, Montmorency, Presque Isle and Cheboygan. If the company were to use 10 percent, 115 new jobs created, at 15%, 189 newly created jobs and if the company were to use its 20 percent maximum, 284 new jobs. These jobs are over and above the estimate of direct and indirect job creation besides the plant itself.
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