Burner facts being hidden

by Richard Peterson

I am troubled by the fact that the Midtown Eco Energy Project’s public comment period has come and gone with virtually no public discussion. I live in the Corcoran Neighborhood that will be directly downwind of this facility. The planned site is two blocks west of the old fertilizer plant on the corner of Hiawatha Avenue and 28th Street that was probably responsible for the arsenic contamination in the soil of Corcoran Neighborhood. As you know, there is currently a major cleanup effort in the area where many homeowners have decided to have the contaminated soil of their yards removed. The effort to clean up the area may be short-lived as the permit for this facility will allow the burner to emit 69 pounds of arsenic every year along with many other toxic chemicals such as benzene, cadmium, mercury, formaldehyde and vinyl chloride to name a few.

This project is an old brainchild of the Green Institute that never got off the ground, in part because they did not think there was enough wood available. Its former executive director, Michael Krause, purchased the land in question and renewed the project as a private business, Kandiyohi Development Partners. One would be seriously misled if they think that the connection to the Green Institute makes this a “Green” project. As I see it, the only connection to “Green” will be due to the facility’s emission of greenhouse gases, ozone depletion and global warming. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Technical Support Document on the proposed permit, “the facility will be a major source of Hazardous Air Pollutants.”

The permit allows the facility to burn wood and wood products, but is given the flexibility to test burn other products and, obviously, amend the permit to allow the burning of other products. Since there are probably not enough downed trees and trimmings to meet the facility’s needs, it will be forced to seek other burnable materials. Up to this point there has been a lot of secrecy with this project. The people of the Corcoran Neighborhood who will be directly affected by this facility have not been informed. In part, it’s the secrecy of the whole project that has me concerned.

As a major polluter the facility will be closely monitored by the Pollution Control Agency to determine if its emissions are below the limits of the permit, not to determine whether it is safe. The document by the Pollution Control Agency states that the burner has the potential to emit 160 tons of Nitrogen Oxides yearly (a ton is equal to 2,000 pounds, so that is an emission of 32,000 pounds of Nitrogen Oxides every year). The document also gives the potential yearly emissions of Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Particulate Matter and the superfine Particulate Matter that finds its way into the deep reaches of the lungs, Hazardous Air Pollutants and Volatile Organic Compounds. It all adds up to over one million pounds of hazardous air pollutants every year.

Just reading the list makes me more than a little nervous, but what are these things anyway? Nitrogen Oxides, for instance, can refer to a number of different gases and vapors such as nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide and others that are known to be extremely toxic. Some of these compounds are stable while others are unstable in the presence of oxygen and other gases, sunlight, electrical storms and other environmental factors. Nitric Oxide in the air can be converted into nitric acid that is implicated in acid rain and the depletion of the ozone layer. Internal combustion engines, such as in automobiles, produce a lot of Nitric Oxide and one of the purposes of catalytic converters in cars is to short circuit that very process. Nitrogen Dioxide and volatile organic compounds can react to form ozone that damages the lungs. Weather reports regularly report ozone levels in order to warn people to alter their outdoor activities on days of potentially dangerous ozone levels.

Nitric acid is a deadly poison but was once used by medical doctors in the removal of some types of warty tumors, ulcers and in the treatment of syphilis, especially in those cases where the patient had already been poisoned through the doctor’s use of mercury. Breathing the fumes of Nitric acid can definitely kill a person by suffocation due to a rapid congestion and inflammation in the lungs. If one checks out a Homeopathic Materia Medica such as Doctor John Henry Clarke’s “Dictionary…” they will discover some of the other toxic effects on the body. During the “proving” of Nitric acid healthy participants ingested minute amounts of the poison to discover its effects upon their health. Here are a few of the effects of Nitric acid poisoning: depression, suicidal disposition, hair falling off in handfuls, saliva so acrid that it burns the lips, teeth falling out, difficulty breathing, violent coughing, chest congestion with palpitations, softening of bones, ulcers, oozing warts, great weakness, extremely painful and bloody stools, and a feeling as if the flesh is being torn from the bones.

The dangers of air pollution are pretty well understood. Studies show a direct link between specific pollutants such as the superfine particulate matter and nitrogen gasses, carbon monoxide and sulfur to the deterioration of health. The connection of serious disease and death due to air pollution is not new but dates back many hundreds of years when the burning of coal was rampant. Industrial pollutants combined with air stagnation have resulted in some extreme examples of its dangers—one incident in London in 1952 resulted in 4,000 deaths.

Another incident in Donora, Pa., in 1948 left 20 dead and thousands hospitalized. Amdur and Drinker studied this occurrence and discovered that repeated inhalation of air pollution in small doses over a long period of time results in a greater, more permanent injury then a high dose of short duration. They developed a machine that produced regular amounts of sulfuric acid mist that they introduced into cages of guinea pigs. With this machine they were able to add very minute amounts of sulfuric acid into the air. They discovered that when guinea pigs (just like humans) were exposed to high doses of sulfuric acid their breathing became faster and more shallow. This is a survival mechanism of the lungs that prevents the acid from reaching deeply into them. But if the dose is small, breathing is not altered, thus allowing the poison to enter and damage the very sensitive deep parts of the lungs. Their study showed that high doses of air pollution can quickly kill individuals who are already weak, but more importantly, that low pollution levels over a long time can result in greater serious negative health consequences then a high dose of short duration. Amdur and Drinker’s studies also showed that air pollution dangers are age related: as age drops, incidence heightens.

There’s another, more recent incident of environmental catastrophe. It occurred in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. When the World Trade Center buildings collapsed, about one million tons of pollutants filled the air. As soon as rescue workers arrived at the scene they started becoming sick—almost all first responders began to experience coughing and breathing problems. Since that time many thousands of individuals have become sick as a result of lung damage, including about 800 firefighters and police officers who have been forced to quit their jobs because of poor health. Over 2,000 more firefighters and police officers are suffering respiratory problems. People are still becoming sick and dying because of their exposure to the polluted air.

This incident, like Donora, represents a massive dose of air pollution in a short time, but remember, slight exposure over a long time can be even worse. It will still be many years before the full extent of the health consequences of this exposure will be known.

Much of the “Technical Support Document” is foreign to me, but one quirky sentence caught my eye. An Air Emissions Risk Analysis was conducted as required. It states, “Acute and chronic noncancer risks are within the acceptable ranges. The farmer cancer risk is above the usually accepted range; however, the farmer exposure path is not likely to be realized in Midtown’s urban setting…” I guess that it is saying that anyone who spends a lot of time breathing outdoor air, working their garden’s toxic soil and eating the fruits and vegetables that they grow will be at a greater risk for cancer. So the next time you’re sitting on you backyard patio or enjoying one of the many neighborhood parks during a pleasant summer evening, make the most of it now. If this burner is allowed to go through, the risks due to outdoor activity will be greatly increased.

I think it’s hard to localize the potential dangers of the proposed burner when the issue is not local but global. Global climate change will drastically change the way we live. Glacial ice melt, ozone depletion, changes in oceanic currents and weather patterns and increased ferocity of weather phenomena such as storms, drought and flooding would very likely lead to food and water shortages, the mass migrations of people, increased disease, war and countless other calamities that I don’t even want to think about. In a hurry we need to become much wiser in the way that we generate and use energy. We need to put our focus on clean renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy. This proposed burner does not fall into that category.

I think over the next few months I will write about the health risks attributed to some of the other pollutants that will be spewing out of the burner.
To learn more about this issue and future meetings see the website at
www.neighborsagainsttheburner.org