Biomass ball back in city's court

By Cheryl Rossi-Staff writer

The regional administrator who will decide whether a biomass or sawdust pellet incinerator should be approved for Southeast False Creek says he won't be rushed by the city's tight timelines.

"I will not make a decision until I'm satisfied that there's been a reasonable amount of information provided to folks," said Ray Robb, air quality district director for the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

"I've gone back to the city and I've said 'OK, well people are saying they don't feel they've gotten enough information and so what can you do about it?' And so we'll have to hear back from them. I know they have their constraints but I still can't make a decision until I know I'm satisfied."

The city proposes building an incinerator near the south end of Cambie Bridge to burn forest industry waste, or biomass, to provide heat and hot water for 15,000 False Creek residents. It would use natural gas as a backup. City staff say a decision must be made this month so the incinerator can be working by spring 2009.

But Robb said his focus is on protection of the environment. "Not aesthetics. It's not land use, it's not noise, it's not traffic, it's not zoning," he said, noting his job is to determine if the project will degrade air quality to unacceptable levels.

Robb also looks for unnecessary contaminants or emissions, which he said can be harmful even if the effect on air quality from the incinerator is acceptable.

His other job, he said, is to make sure the public can provide informed comment on the proposal.

"What I'm looking at here is not the number of people that are concerned, nor how much they yell and scream and write letters to folks. It's the merits of the concern as it relates to environmental protection," he said.

The city asserts the particulate mass generated by a biomass incinerator would be 250 times below the most stringent guideline levels.

"At 250 times lower it suggests that it's not going to be causing pollution but pollution isn't as straightforward as this one facility," Robb said. "It's the kind of thing where if you sit down and listen to a hundred different people, they'll all come up with good arguments over the course of a day or two and so there's a lot to consider."

Robb spoke with the city and the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association, which opposes a biomass incinerator, and told them to jointly hold another information meeting.

Dr. John Blatherwick, the chief medical officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said the health authority doesn't think putting a biomass burner in an urban area is a good idea.

"We think, from our own experience, that it could end up with problems, but that's not what we're supposed to comment on," Blatherwick said. "We're supposed to comment on does it meet the standards, and it meets the standards."

Blatherwick expects the city and Vancouver Coastal Health to be inundated with questions in years to come.

"After a few years, people are going to forget that what they're really seeing is steam that's coming out of the top of those things in the middle of winter when it gets cold," he said. "And people are going to be asking the question: 'Why does a city like Vancouver have this?' I'll be long retired by the time that happens but we're not as enthusiastic about it, let's just say."

published on 04/04/2007