Soul Snatcher, Productions ™ Democracy Wall

WA State Auditor’s Office Whistle Blower Program

The Whistleblower Act provides an avenue for state employees, et al, to report suspected improper governmental action.  (e.g. The use of public facilities and equipment/trucks to interfere with the citizens’ 1st Amendment rights?)

Improper governmental action is defined as any action by an employee undertaken in the performance of the employee’s official duties which:

• Is a gross waste of public funds or resources.
• Is in violation of federal or state law or rule, if the violation is not merely technical or of a minimum nature. (e.g. Violations of citizens’ 1st Amendment rights)
• Is of substantial and specific danger to the public health or safety. (e.g. Adage?)
• Is gross mismanagement.
• Prevents dissemination of scientific opinion or alters technical findings.

1st Amendment Violations

State law preserves the confidentiality people who file whistleblower assertions and of people who provide information for whistleblower investigations. It also prohibits retaliation against people who file whistleblower assertions. The Human Rights Commission investigates retaliation cases.

The Whisteblower Act — Chapter 42.40 RCW — was enacted by the Washington State Legislature in 1982 and amended in 1999 and 2008.

2008 Whistle Blower Policy Guidelines

WA State Whistle Blower Reporting Form

The following link contains about 100 pages including the petition to recall Port Commissioner Jay Hupp along with allegations of misconduct and documentation of the same.  It is hoped the petition will, after being reviewed by the courts, appear as a special ballot measure to remove Mr. Hupp from office for crimes/misconduct against the citizens of Mason County and residents in the Port of Shelton district.  Reportedly, the announcement of this filing at a fund raising event was met with wild applause and renewed hope by local residents.  (Please be patient, as it takes a while to download 100 pages to your screen for viewing.)

Click HERE for Jay Hupp Recall Petition w/allegations & documentation

Port of Shelton Commissioner Jay Hupp

This man, along with Commissioner Tim Sheldon, are among the most hated and dangerous politicians in Mason County due to their insulting, arrogant behavior toward residents while favoring wealthy corporations seeking to poison the community, to destroy its quality of life, forests, and children as a profitable BioMassacre venture.

These officials have created long term animosity and suspicion which residents can cure only by removing them from office as expediently as possible.  Hopefully, voters will be wise enough to avoid replacing them with more self absorbed glad handers who care more about the $ (budget?) than the health of the community, its children, and our welfare.  I don’t know that such a candidate has, as yet, or is about to succeed.  There are too many pretenders for my taste.

Let me put it *this* way, I’d like to see Theresa Jacobson run for County Commissioner.  I trust her with the issue of our collective health and quality of life far more than any current candidate for that position.  And…given Tim’s penchant for holding multiple jobs, perhaps Theresa can follow suit?

Or, How GREEN is *your* Censorship?  Read on to find out!

Read AN OPEN LETTER in the article following this one after reading the  following link:

CLICK here to see Censor You but not US!

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Just CENSURE *your* political speech if it’s inconvenient to US!  Yeah..that’s the ticket!

And, of course, there’s a great deal of consternation about the attempted censorship of Jack Miles (a Port of Shelton Commissioner who supports the people) for publicly criticizing Lt. Governor Brad Owens’ (a local boy) support of Adage, but Heaven forbid *I* should publicly criticize Brenda Hirschi for her failure to support citizen protests against Simpson.

CLICK Here to see the angst over censoring Jack Miles. (posted by Shawnie, no less!)

Read the next article for details on how BioNazis squelch dissent and differing viewpoints to enable political candidates weaseling out of accountability:

Or just CLICK Here to view it.

Brenda,

I’m writing in this fashion because when I’ve tried to address the issue TWICE, you’ve been unresponsive, brittle, resentful, and unrealistic about the matter.  i.e.  The health of the public and our children when it comes to toxins forced down our throats by the
likes of Adage AND Simpson.

For some reason, you distinguish between the two because (you say) one proposes a BioMassacre facility on public property while the other plans on installing one on private property.  But air knows nothing of property boundaries, nor do our lungs.  And the dead don’t care.

While Jerry Lingle has taken campaign contributions from the Devil himself (Hupp and Wallitner among others), YOU are the one folks are relying upon to protect us.  You’ve  failed in your responsibility to look at this issue with critical reasoning.  You’ve been more
concerned about getting elected than on how YOU can make a difference as to sustaining our community and its health.  It certainly isn’t going to be by dent of trading ‘jobs’ for our health and future.   You are 40 years behind the times if you think Simpson is the  soul/spine of this community.  The casino, Walmart, the correction center and our schools provide the majority of jobs, not Simpson, et al.  Simpson (or its proxies) has fired most of its employees and provides relatively little employment in contrast to the damage they do.

Simpson is (in fact) a dirty filthy anachronism that’s got to go.  The community would be much better off without them.  They’ve wiped out the trees in the ‘sustained steal’ plan through which they were given so much land.  And now they, along with Adage, want to ‘privatize’ the very air we breathe while you rattle on about ‘The Budget’??  What’s with that?

The families planning to sell their homes to preserve their lives care little about Mason County budgets/politics when they’ve lost their home here!  What are YOU going to do to help preserve those families and their homes without them having to leave to keep BREATHING??

I’m throwing down the gauntlet NOW–before you’re elected, asking you to do your homework to understand that Simpson’s proposal is as damaging as that made by Adage.  If you don’t grasp that, I or others can help bring you up to speed on the material facts.  But your tone when approached about the matter has been distinctly defensive and
unappreciative.  You are already ignoring residents concerned about this crisis before you’re even elected!  I suppose I can understand that if you’re truly as confused as you sound about Simpson.

Simpson is NOT a friend of local residents and they (and YOU) owe it no ‘loyalty’ for the years it has remained to devastate the local environment.  It is a rapacious corporation with holdings in other areas of the nation who can attest to this fact.  But you’re so busy
getting elected you won’t take the time to address these issues in a meaningful way.  I doubt you’ll find time after getting elected either.

So while Jerry Lingle is clueless about standing with the community on this point, you’re not exactly on the side of the angels either.  I’m very tired of having to decide between the lessor of two evils when you have the education and ability to grasp this if only you’d quit being all about Brenda Hirschi for even a small while.

You’ve repeatedly called this (BREATHING!) *my* issue.  Yes, I admit being fond of it.  But so are almost all of my neighbors.  Just when did it become ‘incidental’ to you?  Do you think the ‘budget’ trumps it?  I’d like to see you hold your breath for 1.5 minutes and then see how quick you are to rattle on about the ‘budget’?  Once our right to BREATHE is secured, we can take the leisure to discuss important budget issues.

But the budget hardly matters to those who cannot breathe or must move to do so.  And if you don’t GET the importance of BREATHING coming before all else, then you’ve got no business representing the people.

And what’s this CRAP about, “Well, it’d be different if we lived in a *perfect* world”?  -B. Hirschi-  Does the fact the world isn’t ‘perfect’ justify murder and mayhem?  What’s the difference between shooting someone and poisoning the air they breathe except the length of time to kill the victim?  This isn’t about the world being ‘perfect’, it’s about stopping criminally minded corporations from destroying residents and their children’s health, our forests, our air quality, our streams, forest based cottage industries, bays, estuaries, aquatic species, biodiversity, forest soils, homes, our future, our quality of life.

Much of what forest based material we have left is on steep slopes vulnerable to erosion and flooding when stripped bare of their last vestige of organic material.

Again, a bullet fired from public or private property is just as deadly.  Acknowledge that fact and accept your responsibility to protect the community.  Remember, like money, air is fungible.  It belongs to all of us and you are justly criticized/condemned for turning a blind eye to this fact based on a bias in favor of Simpson.

Sincerely, -John Smith- (goatherd, paralegal, collections)

ps:  Tim Sheldon, Jay Hupp, and Tom Wallitner will forever be personas non grata for betraying the community that elected them in the belief they would protect the people.  Ross Gallagher foolishly developed a tin ear, following Tim Sheldon’s lead before being voted out of office.  Representative Kathy Haigh got it wrong and stated the e-mail
her office has been getting regarding these bioincinerators was running about 100:1 against it.  What do you need to understand how affected residents feel about Simpson?  Is it simply that you live outside of town that makes the issue incidental or allows you to be biased in favor of Simpson?

pps:  This open letter was censored by Shawnie Whelan/Vedder responding to pressure from supporters of Ms. Hirschi.  Shawnie wimped out and squelched this viewpoint because she feared it would “hurt the cause”.  My own view is censorship always hurts the greater cause of transparency in government and open discussion of ideas: critical elements in a true functioning democracy.  Discussion of the issues is MORE vital than any single candidate including (and perhaps especially) Ms. Hirschi.

Shawnie’s take?:  “While I agree with you, just don’t put it on *my* blog, so I don’t get ‘blamed’ for it!”

My take?:  I concur with Laura Lewis who refused to endorse Brenda Hirschi (after losing in the primary) because Brenda was not resolute in condemning Simpson’s plans to poison the community via its toxic air pollutants/emissions.

Brenda’s take?  Well, take a look at what Brenda posted on her own blog some while back and then removed…but not before some of us copied and archived it.  Read the following, courtesy of Brenda herself:

She deleted this and it is no longer in the google cache..  This link
is not good.. –Shawnie Vedder–
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QsI-EHiml-QJ:masoncountybudget.blogspot.com/2010/07/adage-versus-simpson.html+adage-versus-simpson.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

It is no longer in the google cache but I have an email copy of it.
This was posted to Brenda’s blog on July 2010.. but we don’t want to
publicize this unless we want Jerry to win and we don’t want Jerry to
win… –Shawnie Vedder–

ADAGE versus Simpson
Some are saying it’s inconsistent to be for the Simpson facility while
being against ADAGE coming to John’s Prairie. Here are my reasons for
taking this position.

Simpson has been in Mason County for decades and currently provides
employment for hundreds of our family, friends and neighbors. ADAGE is
a multinational corporation with no ties to this community and claims
that it will bring 24 permanent jobs.

Simpson already has the infrastructure in place. Conversely, ADAGE
will require major infrastructure improvements which must be paid for
by our tax dollars. Some of our elected officials consider federal and
state tax dollars as other than our money. But we know regardless of
the funding source, in the end the taxes come from the taxpayers –
that would be you and me, unfortunately.

If Simpson installs modern air control technology then we could
actually see an improvement in our air quality here in Shelton and
Mason County. The proposed ADAGE facility is merely a computer model
having never actually been built.

Simpson owns two thirds of the designated forest land in Mason County
and will be able to supply it’s own fuel keeping the revenue within
the county. ADAGE doesn’t have this advantage and will be forced to go
outside the county for their fuel supply.
Consequently, Simpson will more likely hire truckers within Mason
County while ADAGE will be hiring truckers from Grays Harbor and
elsewhere.

As I’ve knocked on doors and visited with District 3 voters, I’ve
repeatedly been told that people don’t want ADAGE in Shelton and Mason
County. I wish our elected representatives could hear what the voters
are saying as I go around door belling. The voters desperately want to
be heard on this topic. We need elected officials representing the
citizens.

Mason County deserves competent and informed elected officials working
in an open and transparent manner.

So there you have it, direct, from Brenda’s own hand.  It’s Still ALL ABOUT THE MONEY! Brenda is running on a basic platform that she’s a better money (budget) manager than Jerry Lingle, which is probably true.  Never mind that she’s more difficult to talk to.  She SAYS citizens don’t want Adage.  But she won’t listen when they tell her they don’t want Simpson polluting the air either.  Not only won’t she listen, but then her supporters try to squelch the inconvenient truth of the matter or insist that the issues not be discussed until AFTER the election!

Well, I was born in this country on the 4th of July and I’m a Yankee Doodle through and through.  I believe in America, its Constitution and ESPECIALLY the 1st Amendment.  You should too.  Shame on you who don’t…not really.  When you try to silence your neighbor from speaking the truth, even when you find it inconvenient, you undermine the principles upon which this nation was founded and for which it stands.  When you salute the flag, what do you believe you’re honoring–a piece of cloth?  No!  It’s the principles for which our fathers fought and died.

My liberty to speak does not begin and end with Brenda Hirschi.  Nor will I allow her supporters to quash that inalienable right.  For to do so would be to repudiate life and it’s very meaning.  Our fight to BREATHE is so fundamental, no other issue is greater.  But we will prevail in that fight WITH or WITHOUT Brenda Hirschi!  And so, too, with or without Jerry Lingle, make no mistake.  I will not compromise my principles, especially these, for Brenda Hirschi or ANY OTHER CANDIDATE!  Don’t even *think* of asking.  The answer will always be NO!

Asking a politician, AFTER they’re elected, what they’ll do is a fool’s errand.  Mark my words:  In the end, Brenda Hirschi will stab you in the back just as Linda Ring Erickson has done, Ross Gallagher, Jay Hupp, and Tom Wallitner…yes, and Tim Sheldon too.  Why?  Because officials like Tim no longer NEED community support.  Look at who his contributors are–4 times as many wealthy corporate contributors as real people.  Now that’s appalling but offers an explanation of why he and the Port of Shelton Commissioners feel free to insult their constituents, stone wall, marginalize, and conspire against them.  Again, why?…BECAUSE WE LET THEM by not holding them accountable early on just as some of you aren’t holding Brenda accountable NOW!  Try doing it later and she’ll laugh at you as easily as Tim Sheldon (see the pics, folks) sneers at residents now.

Brenda isn’t alone.  I’ve seen this pattern so often, it’s predictable.  But voters seem to have short memories.   For your own sakes, for all our sakes, HOLD HER ACCOUNTABLE NOW.  Don’t let her weasel (or Jerry either) out of or put it off until later.

BRENDA…why are you willing to let Simpson poison the community?  Because they’re already here?  Because you think ‘jobs’ are worth the sickness and death that comes with perennial poisoning?    Because it isn’t a *perfect’ world??  Because you live further away from the incinerator than many others?  Because the poisons will be disseminated from private property?  This kind of thinking would justify child molesters being given the key to the city so long as they’ve resided here a long time.  Tell me yet again how you distinguish between what Adage plans and Simpson wants?  And then tell me how you sleep at night?

The following link(s) reveals the extent of existing Dioxin contamination, inter-governmental agreements to tighten regulations to contain it, and the failure of ORCAA, Washington State’s EPA, and Mason County (the ‘lead’ EPA agency in this instance) to abide by the restrictions: (Note the highlighted line on page 2 of the report in particular)

4-19-10 Proposed_Changes_to_Interim_Guidelines_for_Dioxins

How We Are Exposed To DIOXIN

Now see the Washington Public Port Association (“WPPA”) e-mail to dioxinproject@usace.army.mil (US Army Corps of Engineers) complaining of the new (July, 2010) stricter guidelines the various inter-governmental agencies have agreed upon USING THE VERY ARGUMENTS LOCAL RESIDENTS PLEADED and Port of Shelton Commissioners ignored.  The hypocrisy is stunning!  Moreover, it reveals ORCAA isn’t the *only* kingpin in this mix.  The US Corps of Engineers has the final say on federal waterways, and they clearly aren’t taking any prisoners.  Dioxin affects more than air quality, it heavily impacts federal waterways as this and the previous document reveal.  Check below for a 2008 map of Dioxin hot spots around the Puget Sound including our very own Oakland Bay and Shelton Harbor.

2008 Puget Sound Dioxin Survey Map

Slide Presentation of Port Angeles DIOXIN Contamination Analysis

Page 5 – Desperate Town Considers DIOXIN Fungi Bioremediation

DIOXINS in WA State Soils, Bioincinerator Ash used as soil amendments

There is massive Dioxin contamination from Simpson’s activities over the years.  Now it (and Adage) want to add even more.  Yet it won’t even be MONITORED by ORCAA according to Gordon Lance, an engineer with the agency.  How can our government agencies protect us from what they won’t monitor?

That’s right.  You heard me.  DIOXIN emissions from these proposed filthy BioMassacre incinerators won’t even be monitored.  How dangerous are they?  Read the documents associated with the links I’ve embedded here.  Government studies indicate Dioxin will be produced (depending on the kind of wood and some other variables) in amounts of 10 milligrams to 167 milligrams per Kg of wood burned.  These facilities plan (collectively) on burning over 1 million Tons of wood per year in our immediate neighborhood, right here in ‘River City’.  This stuff can and WILL kill you.  It’s just a question of time.  In the meantime it will affect your health, your children, and may cause birth defects.  Oh, BTW, nobody wants to live near these things.  So your property values will take a tremendous hit too.

BioMass Burning: Wood, Leaves, Grass, Forests, Crops & Trash (Expert Study cites Dioxin emission rates: 10mg – 167mg/Kg wood burned)

Green Peace Dioxin-Chlorine essay (Current human tissue Dioxin content 50X historic levels…debunking industry arguments background natural sources are responsible)

Media Contacts:
Patricia Graesser, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers media relations, 206- 764-3760 (patricia.graesser@us.army.mil )
Mark MacIntyre, U.S Environmental Protection Agency media relations, 206- 553-7302 (macintyre.mark@epa.gov )
Jane Chavey, Washington State Department of Natural Resources media relations, 360-902-1721 (jane.chavey@dnr.wa.gov )
Curt Hart, Washington State Department of Ecology media relations, 360-407-6990; cell, 360-480-7908 (curt.hart@ecy.wa.gov)

More about Washington’s Dredged Material Management Program: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0706029.pdf

Contacts: Patricia Graesser, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 206-764-3760
Sandy Howard, state Department of Ecology, 360-407-6239
Mark MacIntyre, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 206-553-7302
Jane Chavey, state Department of Natural Resources, 360-902-1721
John Tennis, Thurston County Environmental Health, 360-709-3073
Patti Grant, Port of Olympia, 360-528-8012

Dioxins found in Budd Inlet sediments – agencies join together to improve conditions

Suitability Determination on-line:

http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/PublicMenu/Menu.cfm?sitename=DMMO&pagename=SDM`S_BY_YEAR

More information about dioxin: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/dioxinqa.html

The bottom line is:  Someone needs to file a complaint with the Corps of Engineers, since they have authority over these waterways impacted by the massive fallout from these incinerators.  Dioxin is bio-accumulative. Mothers’ breast milk is already so loaded with this poison it far exceeds what’s allowed in marketable cow’s milk.  But REMEMBER:  Nobody will be monitoring it despite a history here of its unfettered dumping into the environment.  STOP the privatization and poisoning of our air now!  Nobody is minding the hen house.  ORCAA is AWOL.  They’ve been taken over by forces hostile to the people.  They have nothing but pebbles to throw at the industry’s ‘Tanks’ to protect us.  This really is a job for the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) to protect us from ALL enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Seattle Times article on Dioxin contamination Social Justice

Click HERE to see Who is responsible for Dioxin sampling on private land

2010 Tough New DIOXIN Rules Impact on Port Districts

HEALTH AFFECTS IN ANIMALS

While it has been difficult to establish specific health effects in humans due to the lack of controlled dose experiments, studies in animals have shown that dioxin causes a wide variety of toxic effects. In particular, TCDD has been shown to be teratogenic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, immunotoxic, and hepatotoxic. Furthermore, alterations in multiple endocrine and growth factor systems have been reported. The most sensitive effects, observed in multiple species, appear to be developmental, including effects on the developing immune, nervous, and reproductive systems.^[34] These effects are caused at body burdens close to those reported in humans.

Among the animals for which TCDD toxicity has been studied, there is strong evidence for the following effects:

• Birth defects (teratogenicity)

In rodents, including rats,^[35] mice,^[36] hamsters and guinea pigs,^[37] birds,^[38] and fish.^[39]

• Cancer (including neoplasms in the mammalian lung, oral/nasal cavities, thyroid and adrenal glands, and liver, squamous cell carcinoma, and various animal hepatocarcinomas)

In rodents^[35][40] and fish^[41]

• Hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity)

In rodents,^[40] chickens,^[42] and fish^[43]

• Endocrine disruption

In rodents and fish^[44]

• Immunosuppression
• In rodents^[45] and fish.^[46]

Studies of dioxins’ effects in Vietnam:  US groups and Vietnamese groups,

including the Vietnamese government, have convened scientific studies to explore their belief that dioxins were responsible for a host of disorders, including tens of thousands of birth defects in children, that have affected Vietnam veterans as well as an estimated one million Vietnamese, due to their exposure during the Vietnam War to Agent Orange, a defoliant chemical which was widely sprayed over Vietnamese land and which was found to be highly contaminated with TCDD. Several exposure studies showed that some US Vietnam Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange had serum TCDD levels up to 600 ppt (parts per trillion) many years after they left Vietnam, compared to general population levels of approximately 1 to 2 ppt of TCDD. In Vietnam, TCDD levels up to 1,000,000 ppt have been found in soil and sediments from Agent Orange contaminated areas, three to four decades after spraying. In addition, elevated levels have been measured in food and wildlife in Vietnam.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that dioxin levels in Vietnam veterans[48] were in no way atypical when compared against the rest of the population. The only exception existed for those who directly handled Agent Orange. These were members of Operation Ranch Hand. Long-term studies of the members of Ranch Hand have thus far uncovered a possibility of elevated risks of diabetes.

Hey!  Thanks ever so much, Tim and Jay.

Jay & Tim's Legacy

In 1978, dioxins were some of the contaminants that forced the evacuation of the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York.

• From 1982 through to 1985, Times Beach, Missouri, was bought out and evacuated under order of the United States Environmental Protection Agency due to high levels of dioxins in the soil caused by applications of contaminated water meant to control dust on the town’s dirt roads.[61] The town eventually disincorporated.[62]

Tim & Jay's Gift

Incinerator  Dioxin emissions
                             (ng/dscm)
American Ref-Fuel               51
Wheelabrator Falls               3
York County                      5
Harrisburg (1994, 1996 tests) 8231
Harrisburg (1997 tests)        909
Harrisburg (1999 tests)       1170

New Dioxin Legal Limit (ESPs)       60
New Dioxin Legal Limit (non-ESPs)   30
(ng=nanograms; dscm=dry standard cubic meter)
CLICK Here for Link to Dioxin Table Site

2009 Squaxin Dioxin Oakland Bay Study

2008 Puget Sound Dioxin Survey Map 

Tim & Jay Early Returns

Dioxin Love

Prevent BioMassacre

First they came for the gold, but only the Native Americans were dispossessed.  Then they came for the land, but they left some to the Indians.  Next they came for the silver, other metals, then the coal and oil.  They took some of my neighbors’ land and even much of what they’d previously left to the Indians.  But it produced jobs along with the filth.  Such is the price of ‘progress’.  All this time, they came for the forests, but nobody thought much of it.  After all, we still have 4% of what we started with, isn’t that enough?  They came for the rivers, bays, and lakes…even the seas and oceans.  The waters seemed so vast, surely they couldn’t take them all?  Now they want the remaining trees and they’ve come for the air itself.  But there’s no one left who can stop them.

I had a dream.  In it, the ponies were screaming and our grandchildren were crying.  I saw them lying all around on the ground.  They could not move.  They were dying.  The air was heavy and I could barely see the mountains where the forests were gone.  There was no moon or stars, only the pall of death in the sky.  I heard my grandfather’s voice.  He told me he had the same dream many years before my birth.  He had not wanted to tell me of it.  He had not wanted to believe what his eyes told him.  I do not want to believe this dream either.  Surely our Creator will not let the people perish and lose all purpose.  Surely the land will live on and sustain us.  Surely our brothers, when they too have this dream, will be afraid for it is not a good death I have seen.

From: alertnet.org/

Transcript from KUOW

(Data assembled by Ecolaw, Cambridge, MA)

FACT: Burning biomass for energy is “dirtier” than burning coal. Burning biomass emits large amounts of air pollution, and endangers human health.

• Biomass burning is dirtier than burning coal. Per unit of power generated, burning wood emits 1.25-3.0 times as much carbon CO2 (the most important greenhouse gas) as coal.[1]
• Biomass burning emits more PM [particulate matter] as coal, a pollutant associated with asthma, heart disease, and cancer.[2]
• Wood burning biomass incinerators typically increase ground level ozone. Burning biomass produces hundreds of tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), two ingredients of the ground-level ozone that causes asthma in children and exacerbates other pulmonary and cardiac disease problems.[3]
• Biomass energy is woefully inefficient, averaging only 26% efficiency. Thus, 74% of the energy in the wood burned is wasted.  However, 100% of the wood burned generates pollution.[4]

FACT: Burning biomass to generate electricity is not carbon neutral. Under current or proposed laws biomass burning will dramatically increase greenhouse gases because the emissions are higher than coal per unit of power produced, and, because of the “biomass loophole”, the CO2 emissions from these plants are reported by EPA on e-grid as zero.

• CO2 is CO2. Every molecule has the same negative effect regardless of the source, whether it is from a tailpipe or a smokestack
• So called “biogenic” carbon in the atmosphere causes just as much harm as every other type of CO2. The amount of carbon in the biosphere is fixed. It is the percentage in the atmosphere in the next 20-30 years that will determine what happens to the world climate. Human burning of biomass is not part of the “normal” carbon cycle.
• We can’t grow the trees fast enough. The assumption used to be that the trees could grow back fast enough that burning would not cause a significant rise in atmospheric CO2 levels. That is not true. In April, 2009 the EPA reversed itself and invalidated that concept by stating that:

“…for a given amount of CO2 released today, … 30 percent will be removed over a few centuries, and the remaining 20 percent will only slowly decay over time such that it will take many thousands of years to remove from the atmosphere.” Federal Register, Vol 74, p 18899, 4/24/2009.

• “Maintaining the exemption for CO2 under the protocol [Kyoto] wrongly treats all biomass sources as carbon neutral, even if the source involves clearing forests for electricity. For example, the clearing of long-established forests to burn wood or to grow energy crops is counted as a 100% reduction in emissions despite causing large carbon emissions. Replacing fossil fuels with bioenergy does not by itself reduce carbon emissions.” Searchinger, et.al., Science 326: 527, 2009.

FACT: Greenhouse gas emissions from biomass incinerators are significant and will undermine initial efforts to cut US greenhouse gas emissions.

• If the renewable energy targets for 2020 are met then the burning of wood and trash will cause the emissions of 700,000,000 tons of CO2 each year.[5]
• This CO2 won’t be “counted” because biomass is considered a “renewable energy source” by all the Congressional climate bills. This means the CO2 is ignored by the law and is not regulated.
• This “loophole” effectively reduces the CO2 emissions reductions in 2020 from 17% to less than 5%. This is a serious setback in efforts to control climate change before irreversible thresholds or biological tipping points are breached.[6]

FACT: Biomass harvesting over-exploits forests and degrades their vital ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere

• A single 50-megawatt biomass plant burns about 650,000 tons of trees a year, over a ton of wood a minute.[7]
• Biomass plants don’t just burn forestry “waste” (tops and branches) – they burn whole trees which are then chipped.
• Mature trees sequester more carbon than newly planted trees, even though young trees appear to grow faster.[8]
• Cutting and burning a tree is a “double whammy” for the environment. The tree is no longer taking CO2 out of the atmosphere and burning the wood produces an acute spike in CO2 levels.

FACT: Biomass energy wastes water and pollutes rivers

• A large-scale biomass plant requires close to a million gallons a day of water for cooling.
• Hundreds of thousands of gallons of this water are vaporized in the cooling process.
• Plant cooling needs and water takings are greatest in summer when high temperatures already reduce river flows and stress native fish.[9]
• Impacts of water takings will worsen as climate warming and droughts further stress rivers.[10]
• Logging impacts water quality. Equipment tears up soils, leading to erosion and siltation in streams.[11]
• Heavily contaminated boiler “blow down” (rinse water) is pumped back into rivers at unnaturally high temperatures, making waters too warm and polluted for native coldwater fish.

[2] Information on the hazards of particle pollution is available from EPA at http://www.epa.gov/particles/ and American Lung Association at www.lungusa.org

[3] Emissions data from environmental reports for proposed Russell, Palmer, and Pioneer Renewable Energy plants (Massachusetts) Boardman coal fired plant in Portland, OR and the PVEC gas fired plant in Holyoke, MA.

[4]

[5] EIA

[6] David Hawkins of NRDC before Senate Committee on the Environment July 7, 2009.

[7] Data from environmental reports for proposed Russell, Palmer, and Pioneer Renewable Energy plants (Massachusetts). The “biomass availability report” prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) by Innovative Natural Resource Solutions (2007) states that 13,000 tons of biomass are required per MW of generation annually.

[8] Data from a Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site study show that recovery from logging takes decades

[9] Environmental impact reports of all plants and equipment specifications show a linear increase in cooling water needs with increase in ambient air temperature.

[10] Climate Change Impacts, White House Report 2009, Executive Summary, www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts and Climate Change 2007: IPCC 4^th Assessment report

[11] Data from a Harvard Forest Brook LTER site cutting study quantified CO2 emissions from soils and forest residues after logging.

Facts on Biomass Incinerators – presented by Dr. William Sammons from incinerator free on Vimeo.