There is enough fibre in the woods to fuel Atlantic Power Corporation’s biomass-fired generating plant in Williams Lake without having to resort to burning old rail ties, Mayor Walt Cobb said.
“We have enough fibre now, we don’t need the rail ties,” Cobb told the Tribune. “We need to get that fibre out of the woods for fire protection.”
Burning rail ties was a major issue in the recent election and was debated among all city council candidates leading up to the election.
Previously Cobb and city council wrote a letter in support of proceeding with an environmental evaluation of burning ties, however, Cobb recently penned a letter to the British Columbia Utilities Commission in support of Atlantic Power’s electricity purchase agreement extension application with BC Hydro.
“We believe that it is important to recognize that Atlantic Power provides more than electricity,” Cobb stated in the letter. “It provides a very real opportunity to reduce greenhouse gases by burning fuel that would normally be burnt in large slash piles in the bush.”
He goes on to say that the 2017 wildfires also puts community concerns around rail-tie burning to rest.
“That was an initiative that was previously being considered by the company as an alternative fuel source in anticipation of a reduction in forest industry operations as pine beetle salvage efforts and the associated temporary increase in allowable cuts shifted.”
Cobb said he’s been pushing for getting the fibre from the woods to the plant for a long time.
“We haven’t really changed anything other than there are alternatives out there so let’s utilize them.”
Speaking from California, Atlantic’s environmental manager Terry Shannon said the company’s position on utilizing rail ties has not changed because it has not been finalized.
“All along we’ve been consistent with the fact the reason we went to railroad ties is because we have had trouble securing long-term affordable biomass,” he said, noting the company is still in the process of adjudicating its appeal with the Environmental Appeal Board which has been underway for more than a year. “We are hoping for an answer in the next four or five months.”
Regardless, he added, the company is not burning rail ties right now.
“We wouldn’t be able to burn them under a short-term extension of our agreement,” he added, noting the company would have to invest heavily to be set up to burn rail ties.
Shannon said if Cobb is successful in pushing a secured affordable biomass for Atlantic Power it would be great and the company would not need to burn rail ties.
Williams Lake lawyer Patricia Weber is an organizer with Rail Ties Be Wise, a group that has appealed the burning of rail ties citing environmental concerns.
Read more: Appeals granted on rail tie burning at Atlantic Power
“Our group thinks it’s a great step forward by Walt Cobb to write the letter because there is a bunch of biomass in the forest that needs to be disposed of and it would be great if Atlantic Power could burn it for power and refrain from burning rail ties,” Weber said. “It’s certainly what we have heard from community members in our group consistently, that they’d rather not have rail ties burned.”
Aside from the appeal underway with the appeal board, Weber said the BC Utilities Commission has decided it wants to review the energy permit agreement between BC Hydro and Atlantic Power.
“The commission made this decision on the basis that they want to know if the agreement is in the taxpayers’ best interest,” Weber said. “The factor that they are deciding on is whether or not if there’s too much energy available on the market then the cost of hydro will go up.”
Weber said Rail Ties Be Wise has made a decision saying it supports Atlantic Power operating to burn biomass.
“We don’t want the energy purchase agreement to be revoked and AP has come to that utilities commission saying with a one-year extension they will not be burning rail ties,” Weber said, noting her group supports the contract without burning rail ties and wants to see the plant operating.
It only makes sense in a town with sawmills, she added.
Atlantic Power Williams Lake’s business manager Frankie Nelson said rail ties have always been the backup plan because of the expected downturn in the forest industry.
“Our prospective fuels will be going away. We’re already seeing mills closing and as time goes on there’s less supply and it’s more expensive. We need to prove to BC Hydro over the long-term that we have availability fuel and our go-to is always going to be traditional fuel, which is out of the mills.”
If the roadside logging debris becomes affordable then Nelson said it would make sense for the company to utilize it.
“Right now, it’s just too expensive,” Nelson said. “Anybody in the industry knows that.”
Presently AP has enough traditional supply and has received biomass from the Williams Lake Community Forest, however, that was subsidized by the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C., she added.
“Now Forest Enhancement Society has put out a call for biomass and things like that may allow us to stay with more traditional fuels. But we don’t know that. So to be prepared we have to be able to be diversified.”
Reporter’s note:
At Tuesday evening’s city council meeting during the roundtable discussion where council members give an update, both Councillor Scott Nelson and Mayor Cobb talked about Atlantic Power’s energy agreement with BC Hydro and the need for it to be secured.
Cobb is trying to set up a meeting with the ministers of forestry, environment and energy and mines to discuss it, and hopes representatives from Atlantic Power can attend.
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