Enviva officials say an air quality permit will allow its wood pellet production to expand in Sampson and ensure the company adheres to some of the most stringent controls on the planet, while opponents maintain the dangers of such plants are not fully known, imploring a halt on expansion and urging the governor to enact a moratorium on the entire industry.
About 60 people spoke on both sides of the issue during a public hearing on the draft permit for Enviva Pellets Sampson LLC. The hearing, which opened with about 45 minutes of explanation and questions about the permit, and some introductions, then carried over into nearly 130 minutes of public comments, was held Monday night at the Sampson Community College Activities Center.
It was a packed auditorium as a caravan of speakers each received 2 minutes of microphone time to make their case.
Written comments were also accepted by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s (NCDEQ) Division of Air Quality, whose panel presided over the hearing. Comments can be submitted until 5 p.m. this Friday, July 19.
The Division of Air Quality will render its decision sometime after that.
“This permit is about installing additional air emissions control equipment at the existing plant — equipment that is proven to be reliable,” said Yana Kravtsova, vice president of Environmental Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer at Enviva. “I don’t know who would be against it. This permit is very stringent. After we have installed all the controls that we have committed to install, this will be the best controlled facility in the United States, if not the world.”
“We’re here to displace coal and grow more trees,” added Chris Seifert, VP of Environmental Health and Safety at Enviva.
Enviva officials, loggers, foresters, local dignitaries and others spoke to the company’s community partnerships, environmental stewardship, significant tax investment and job creation. Environmental groups and residents cited the pollution caused by the wood pellet industry and the toll it waged on the earth, as well as the adverse health effects caused by emissions into what they said was an already-unhealthy community in Sampson, citing studies.
They also questioned the cumulative effects that the wood pellet plant and its volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — particulate matter byproducts of burning fuel such as gasoline, wood, coal or natural gas — has on communities that already have swine and poultry industries crowding the landscape.
Company officials said the permit would expound on extensive anti-pollutant measures already being taken at the plant.
The Enviva Pellets Sampson facility’s current air quality permit allows production of up to 537,625 over dried tons per year. Enviva has requested a modified permit for a softwood expansion project, which would increase total production to 657,000 tons with up to 100 percent softwood. The existing permit includes up to 75 percent.
Softwood refers to lumber that has been cut from evergreen conifers, like pine and spruce. Hardwood comes from flowering plants such as oak, maple and walnut. Enviva manufacturers wood pellets from those trees, shipping the pellets to the United Kingdom, where they are burned for fuel.
Some maintained that wood pellet plants like Enviva meant that loggers depleted areas.
Barry New, with the North Carolina Forest Service, cited U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics echoed by many loggers. He said the numbers showed the area of forest land has actually increased from 18.61 million in 2013 to 18.76 million in 2018 — approximately 150,000 more acres.
“We have to think about renewable resources, and forest products are renewable resources,” said Michael Walters, president of Claybourn Walters Logging Company in Fairmont. “We talk about fossil fuels and the damage it does to the environment today. This is a renewable resource, an agriculture crop that’s worth about $16.2 billion to the State of North Carolina’s $84 billion (agriculture) economy. That’s about 19 percent of our agricultural economy in this state.”
The draft permit incorporates air pollution control equipment — a regenerative thermal oxidizer — installed at the plant in December 2018. That “RTO” controls emissions from the greenwood hammermills and the dryer, helping to reduce VOCs. If approved for the modified permit, Enviva would be required to install more equipment to further control emissions from the dry hammermills, pellet pressers and coolers.
That would have to be done within 6 months of permit issuance.
Wave of opposition
Daniel Parkhurst, policy manager for Clean Air Carolina, said the wood pellet production in North Carolina has boomed in the past decade — by some 600 percent in six years. And that wasn’t a good thing.
He said the wood pellet production process is one “that has been well established as contributing to climate change and dirtier than coal and natural gas,” he said, citing the Rachel Carson Council, whose representatives also spoke to the matter.
“This runs directly counter to Executive Order 80 and does undermine our resiliency overall,” said Parkhurst. “That’s why Clean Air Carolina supports a moratorium on any expansion of the wood pellet industry in our state until a full study can be completed to show the impact the industry has on our climate, our resiliency and the public health of our residents.”
Executive Order No. 80, cited throughout the hearing, was Gov. Roy Cooper’s October 2018 missive touting the state’s commitment to address climate change and a transition to a clean energy economy.
“Each breath we take should be a healthy one,” said Parkhurst, citing the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study ranking Sampson 78th and 80th among the state’s 100 counties in health outcomes and length of life, respectively. “It just does not make sense in a county already facing some of the worst health outcomes in the state to increase its residents’ exposure to additional pollutants.”
Enviva Pellets Sampson began operations back in 2016.
There are 95 people employed at the plant, located off U.S. 117 near Faison, about a mile from the Duplin County line. The Sampson plant supports an additional 200 indirect jobs, according to the company. Expanded production and more emission controls would mean growing an investment that already hovers around $130 million, they said.
Scot Quaranda, communications director for forest and environmental advocacy group Dogwood Alliance, called on NCDEQ to deny Enviva’s permit and Cooper to “pull the brakes” on further expansion of the industry.
“One of the main things companies like Enviva promise local residents is jobs, jobs, jobs, but there are two huge problems with this narrative. Firstly, the economic stimulus is built on sand and, secondly, it is possible to have jobs and a clean healthy environment,” Quaranda noted. “If extractive industries and industrial logging actually pulled communities out of poverty and improved their quality of life, this region would be one of the wealthiest and happiest in the world.”
A North Carolina resident, Quaranda said he has been following the biomass industry in the state for the past decade. At a time when we full action should be taken to addresss the climate emergency, Enviva is increasing carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
“No community should have to choose between good, well-paying jobs and their health, or their quality of life, air and the environment,” said Quaranda.
Emily Zucchino, director of community engagement for Dogwood, said the Cooper admininistration and the NCDEQ “have allowed Enviva to expand unchecked in North Carolina, with no proper analysis of this industry’s impact on our forest, our climate and our communities.”
“Enviva and their supporters will claim jobs at all cost. The 90 jobs that Enviva provides at this plant come with a price tag of increased pollution, illness and a (devastated) landscape,” said Zucchino.
Jane Thornton, who lives about one-fourth of a mile from the Enviva plant, and Deborah Kornegay, just six miles away, were a couple of the local residents who spoke to the issue.
“Let’s be proactive, not reactive, before it’s too late and we don’t have any forests,” Thornton said.
Kornegay has addressed the Sampson Board of Commissioners on numerous occasions over the years in opposition of various industries — Enviva included — that she said would adversely affect residents’ health. She lives just outside of Calypso in northern Duplin County.
She requested the panel deny Enviva’s permit.
“I expressed my concern about Enviva to the Sampson County commissioners as early as 2013 (when the board approved a performance-based tax incentives package for the company) after visiting Ahoskie and listening to the complaints of the citizens who live in close proximity to the plant there,” said Kornegay.
Deforestation affects the environment and pollution affects her family and others, she stated.
“If Enviva was as neighborly as they claim to be, they would have installed maximum achievable (emissions) control technology when the plant was built, instead of being forced to do it nearly three years later,” said Kornegay. “No one should take our right to clean air away. Please protect us from an industry that jeopardizes our health and well-being for profit.”
Richard Wainright, from Birmigham, England, said the UK has declared it will be carbon neutral by 2050, which will have a direct impact on the biomass industry across the pond. He said there is a push away from incentivized companies and tax breaks and move toward schools and clean energy investments.
“Why do you think we are importing your forests rather than cutting down our own?” said Wainright.
‘A good neighbor’
Jack Swanner, membership liaison and ProLogger coordinator with the North Carolina Forestry Association, spoke in favor of Enviva’s expansion and endeavor.
“After 30 years, it’s amazing to me to stand in an auditorium with the same environmental groups in North Carolina, who have stood with me in other auditoriums … and talked about public lands and what a horrible thing our industry was,” said Swanner, dripping with sarcasm. “Now, the next evil person that comes along Enviva and the pellet industry. What do we hear tonight? The same emotional things. We are not the evil empire. We are an industry that is sustainable.”
Christopher Stock, representing Senator Brent Jackson, talked of Enviva’s investment of more than $500 million into North Carolina, supporting over 1,200 jobs. Enviva expects to expand that jobs number by 25 percent this year alone.
Enviva owns and operates seven plants in the southeastern United States that produce over 3 million metric tons of wood pellets annually. That includes four plants in North Carolina, a port facility in Wilmington and a headquarters office in Raleigh.
Enviva has been “critical” in created economic opportunity for communities like Sampson, said Stock.
Catherine Ezzell-Joyner, executive vice president of Ezzell Trucking in southern Sampson, talked to the partnership her family’s company has had with Enviva over the past seven years. Ezzell provides transportation for finished pellets from the Sampson location, as well as three others.
She called Enviva “an excellent partner” who has made a sizable local impact on the company and community.
“They focus not only on producing an environmentally friendly biomass product but also dedicating themselves to being a good neighbor through community involvement,” said Ezzell. “The Sampson facility has provided 30 jobs at Ezzell Trucking alone.”
Mount Olive Mayor Joe Scott and members of local fire departments and Chambers of Commerce echoed statements of Enviva’s positive economic impact. John Swope, executive director of the Sampson County Economic Development Commission, and Sampson Board of Commissioners chairman Clark Wooten also spoke in favor of Enviva and its expansion.
Steve Schaar, plant manager for Enviva Pellets Sampson, said he appreciated the support from the community and all of the “green shirts” in the room, referring to Enviva employees.
“Not only do we have 90 people who are here, I had the unique privilege of hosting close to 55 tours in the past 14 months I’ve been here, of people who are excited about displacing coal, growing trees and growing people in Faison,” said Schaar, who extended the invite to everyone in the room and beyond. “In September, we will celebrate three years of pellets (in Sampson). As I look at Enviva, one of the things that differentiates it, is their uncompromising transparency, integrity and honesty in everything we do.”
Comments on the draft permit can be submitted until 5 p.m. this Friday, July 19, via email to DAQ.publiccomments@ncdenr.gov. Type “Enviva Sampson 18a” in the subject line. Written comments can be mailed to Betty Gatano, P.E., NC DEQ Division of Air Quality, 1641 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1641.
To see the permit, the Environmental Justice snapshot of the affected area or submit comments, visit the NCDEQ Division of Air Quality website at ncair.org.
