Vermont Sues Forest Firm Over Tyre Burning Plan

Vermont Sues Forest Firm over Tyre Burning Plan

by PlanetArk USA, BOSTON

10th February 2006

An air-quality dispute pitting Vermont against the world's largest forest products company escalated on Thursday when the state made a bid in court to stop the firm from burning scrap tyres as fuel to cut costs.

The lawsuit against International Paper Co and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation comes at a time when increasing numbers of US companies are burning tyres as fuel in the search for alternatives to costly oil.

"Protecting the quality of the air that the public is going to be breathing we regard as an imperative," Erick Titrud, Vermont's assistant attorney general, told Reuters.

Environmentalists and residents of Vermont, which boasts the cleanest air in the northeastern United States, fear northeasterly winds will blow toxins into the state from the tyres at the company's plant in Ticonderoga in neighboring New York.

Vermont Gov Jim Douglas has led a campaign for two years to stop the two-week trial planned for this year. Protesters have picketed near the plant. Vermont radio has broadcast a protest song to stop the test.

The lawsuit filed in New York state court argues that International Paper's test burn of tyres at its Ticonderoga mill near Vermont's border should not go forward without a full environmental review. A hearing was set for March 3.

The US Environmental Protection Agency considers industrial tyre-burning a largely efficient and safe way to reduce America's growing mountain of scrap automobile tyres and has backed International Paper's proposal.

But environmentalists and Vermont authorities are concerned about the risk posed by fine particles smaller than 2.5 microns - a fraction of the thickness of a human hair - which can cause disease and are tough to regulate.

The emissions are linked to premature deaths from heart and lung disease, chronic bronchitis and asthma.

The EPA began regulating those particles in 1997. But scientists say the standards should be tighter and that fine-particle emissions in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago often equal or exceed EPA limits. New York state is considering whether to issue International Paper (IP) a permit for the test.

International Paper has said scrubbers and other pollution controls installed in 1998 will catch dangerous toxins from its 30-year-old boiler at its Ticonderoga plant.

It estimates it will save $3.8 million a year in fuel bills by burning 72 tonnes of tyre-derived fuel - in the form of biscuit-sized chips - each day in the Ticonderoga oil boiler.

The governor's spokesman, Jason Gibbs, said Douglas wants International Paper to install an electrostatic precipitator, or ESP - a pollution control device that removes toxic fine particles. The company has said the device would cost up to $15 million and has no plan to install one for the two-week trial, which it expects could take place in May or June.

Story by Jason Szep

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE