Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Sunday, June 30, 2002
Comment period ending; environmental groups work on
Jeff Johnson, the DNR air management engineer in charge of the Xcel permit for the French Island plant, said this week that the deadline for accepting public comments from other states and Indian nations has been extended until July 21.
The public comment period is closed.
Johnson said the DNR will address the public comments received in writing and at a June 13 public hearing. By late July, Johnson said, he expects to send a proposed permit to the EPA for review.
The EPA then has 45 days to review the permit and can approve it or make modifications.
Several environmental groups have asked DNR to make significant changes to the draft permit.
"Given the history of noncompliance by Xcel's French Island incinerator, the DNR should significantly amend the draft permit to require control technology that will assure compliance with permit terms, reduce allowable emissions and clearly require testing that will demonstrate compliance with the permit terms," wrote attorney Melissa Scanlan of Midwest Environmental Advocates.
Scanlan represents WISPIRG, Northern Thunder, Wisconsin EnvironmentalDecade, Kickapoo Valley Stewardship Alliance and the Sierra Club.
If the environmental groups don't get the changes they want from the DNR, they will work on the EPA, with whom they've had success. It was Scanlan who in 2000 convinced the EPA to reclassify French Island so it had to meet federal rules - including installation of new pollution control equipment - for large municipal solid waste combustors, which went into effect late in 2000.
French Island has been in violation of the federal Clean Air Act since then, though the EPA has not yet imposed any fines or ordered the plant closed.
Xcel officials have said French Island will be in compliance with the Clean Air Act as soon as it finishes installing new pollution control equipment later this year.
Under the contract between Xcel and La Crosse County, the county's solid waste system has to pay for the new pollution control equipment.
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