Thursday nights' meeting of the Presque Isle County Planning Commission quickly turned into a pool of raw emotion, name calling and accusations.
Representatives from Wolverine Power, the Sierra Club and the Michigan Land Institute squared off in a nearly three hour debate on petroleum coke that did little but anger most of the members of the planning commission. Commissioner Richard Wright accused Commissioner Bud Delong of using his comments about burning of biomass out of context to fuel the fire.
"My only concern about biomass was that if we didn't restrict what Wolverine can use it could result in a catastrophe," Wright said. "I just wanted to make sure that no medical or animal waste or tires were burned. I'm getting tired of all this and I won't put up with this any more."
Commissioner Jerry Counterman said the process is being delayed by picking out words and dwelling on what they could mean.
"This is nit-picking plain and simple." He said. "What are we going to choose next not that's not wood it's a tree? Let's get on with it."
Delong said he is only looking out for the health and welfare of the residents of the county. He said Wolverine is the one at fault because all the company had to do is request a public hearing and the commission would consider the request.
Wolverine spokesman Ken Bradstreet read a letter from the company's Craig Borr, in which Borr said the issue over petcoke is not for the planning commission to decide, but rather the state's experts on fuels and emissions.
"Wolverine respectfully submits that highly technical, scientific determinations regarding air quality should not be made in the course of a land use planning process, but rather by the experts from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, whose responsibility it is to protect the public health and safety in these matters," he wrote.
Bradstreet added, "Without notice, an action was taken to materially affect an issued permit. We were not given the opportunity to respond nor were we even notified that the action going to be taken. There are state statutes regarding this type of action and the parliamentary procedure regarding how this should have happened state law was not followed."
Delong responded by producing a letter from the planning commission's attorney, Mike Vogler, that, according to Delong, said the action was in his opinion taken properly because he could not find any reference to petcoke in the written transcripts.
"Vogler was asked to review the petcoke issue and although mentioned, the information was not included in the written presentation by Wolverine," Delong said. "Vogler's conclusion was that the two votes on the issue of petcoke not being in the presentation were made properly and that Wolverine will have to seek amendments to the 2006 permit to built the plant."
Wright said his comments were taken out context. He also said petcoke was brought up as early as the first meetings the commission had with Wolverine.
"Petcoke is not coal and is made as a byproduct from the crude oil distilling process. This delaying tactic is nothing more than an attempt to disrupt and delay this project," he said.
Bradstreet asked that the issue of petcoke be tabled for the time being until the DEQ can complete the public hearing process and determine if the fuel will be allowed.
"Who knows, after the DEQ rules, petcoke may not even be an issue," he said. "The experts will determine which fuels and how much of each are allowed and they very well could exclude petcoke from consideration."
With that issue seemingly settled, the Sierra Club's Tom Karas along with Jim Dulzo from the Michigan Land Institute produced a look at petcoke from their perspective. A perspective Karas admitted after the meeting was warning residents to possible dangers associated with the fuel and potential health hazards if the process is not closely monitored.
"We are here to warn everyone about things that could happen if the power plant burns petcoke as a primary fuel," Karas said. "The problem here is that no one knows a great deal about petcoke and I must commend Wolverine because they admitted the same assessment. I feel that after all is said and done, our task of attempting to delay and inform the public to ensure everyone knows the potential risks, the DEQ will still issue the permit in the end."
The first public informational hearing will take place Oct. 1 at Rogers City High School. This first meeting will allow the public to ask questions and gather information from the members of the DEQ staff who will review all the data before issuing the permit. This session will not be taped.
The second set of hearings during which statements and comments will be recorded. Those dates are Oct. 29-30 at the RCHS gymnasium.
Mike Modrzynski can be reached via e-mail at mmodrzynski@thealpenanews.com.