biomass emissions tests should be complete Klamath 012311

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Biomass emission tests should be complete

Herald and News letter to editor 1/20/11 by Greg Beckman Sr., Green Acres

Biomass opacity regulations of 20 percent is way too much.

I used to perform opacity tests on diesel engines and can attest that the amount of particulate being emitted at this level is not just noticeable, but will be excessive to those with respiratory ailments.

Here in the Klamath Basin, we have a predominate wind out of the north that will carry the emissions to California, just 15 miles away, and we won’t have to put up with it. But, when the wind changes to coming from the south, you had better know we will be in for some smothering days ahead.

Opacity aside, particulate is not the only emission we will have to deal with.

Oxides of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and monoxide and hydrocarbons are just a few more that will be distributed to the Basin. Give us a good heavy inversion layer and we will have the makings of a killer smog like the one that hit the Soviet Union just a few months past.

As it is, we almost have as many noburn days as we do burn days. Even though the plant will be outside the Department of Environmental Quality zone, by just a mile or less, will they have to stop burning if the wind changes and the emissions start to cover the Klamath Basin? I bet not!

I’ll let others deal with the water and soil pollution problems that will show their ugly heads sooner or later.

Emission tests should include chemical and gas tests along with the opacity. Why just test part way?

Let people know exactly what is choking them.