EPA puts Snag in Plan to Burn Tires

The Environmental Protection Agency may delay a decision on a permit to burn shredded tires and other waste on a Coachella Valley, Calif., Indian reservation after local governments objected to the idea.

Colmac Energy of Mecca wants the EPA to allow it to broaden the palette of material it burns to produce electricity at its power plant on the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians’ reservation.

The plant typically burns enough wood, lawn clippings and agricultural waste to power around 45,000 homes. By adding tires, railroad ties and cardboard to the fuel mix, Colmac stands to lower its production costs, according to industry experts.

But local officials believe the new fuels threaten the plant’s status as a "biomass" energy producer, which means area governments selling yard waste to the company would no longer earn state recycling credits for their efforts.

Losing even a small amount of recycling credits could bump some valley cities from compliance with a state law requiring communities to divert at least 50 percent of waste away from landfills.

"(Losing credits) is a big deal if the city is hovering around the 50 percent diversion rate," said John Wohlmuth, executive director of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments.

CVAG, the Riverside County Waste Management Department and the city of Indian Wells are among those that contacted the EPA asking the agency to delay issuing the permit change.

In March, an EPA official suggested the agency was ready to approve the change.

But last week, Robert Baker, an EPA environmental engineer, said the agency would postpone a decision in order to research whether it should delay an air quality ruling for an issue unrelated to air pollution.

"I’m not going to issue any federal permit before I know what I can do," Baker said.

The landfill diversion restrictions are based on state regulations issued in 1995 that say in order to get recycling credit for burning yard waste, the material must be processed at a plant that "exclusively processes biomass."

Chris Peck, a spokesman for the California Integrated Waste Management Board, said the state "didn’t want to encourage mass burning of materials."

Falling from compliance with state recycling quotas could cost local governments as much as $10,000 per day in fines, said Deborah Orrill, another CIWMB spokeswoman.

Local governments could avert fines by finding other ways to divert waste or make a "good faith effort" to convince the state they are trying, Orrill said.

However, alternative sources of biomass recycling credits could be costlier than shipping to Colmac, according to Bill Carlson, vice president of a Northern California biomass firm who has also lobbied on behalf of the industry.

"I can see why they feel threatened," Carlson said. "There is probably no one within an economic haul of Riverside County."

Neither Graeme R. Donaldson, the Colmac plant manager, nor a Cabazon tribal spokesman returned calls for comment Tuesday.

According to the state waste management board’s most recent approved figures, Cathedral City, Coachella, Indian Wells, Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage were within two percentage points of falling from compliance.

"It appears the loss of the biomass credit would be an unintended and unforeseen effect of the proposed permit modification," Linda Furbee, director of management services for Indian Wells, wrote to the EPA.

Without credit for waste sent to Colmac, Indian Wells’ 2001 diversion rate would have dropped from 54 percent to 49.8 percent, according to Furbee’s letter.

Despite the problems it could cause for local cities, a permit change for Colmac could save the company money and reduce the amount of pollution in Coachella Valley skies.

Before local officials asked for a delay, the EPA was prepared to approve Colmac’s request. The permit, however, would have included stricter overall emission limits for the plant.

"We giveth and we taketh away," Baker said. "We allowed alternative fuels but we reduced the amount of emissions we permit."

The new permit would have reduced the amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and particulates Colmac is allowed to release, Baker said.

The new fuels also could lower Colmac’s production costs because tires, railroad ties and cardboard are cheaper and more readily available than yard waste, Carlson said.