L’ANSE – L’Anse-Warden Electric Company CEO Steve Walsh and environmental activist Catherine Andrews don’t agree often, but both say the L’Anse-Warden power plant’s operating permit doesn’t allow the burning of utility poles.

“The permit allows us to burn three things, (railroad) ties, tire-derived fuel and wood chips,” said Walsh. “To burn something else, we’d have to apply for that.”

“In the permit and the fuel procurement document, they’ve always explicitly specified what the fuel source has been,” agreed Andrews.

That’s why, Andrews said, she took pictures when she noticed what appeared to be utility poles mixed in with railroad ties while observing a L’Anse-Warden fuel yard from the hillside above. The photos, which she says she took just under two weeks ago, show round, apparently longer poles sticking out from the bottom of at least one large pile of square railroad ties.

Andrews and the Friends of the Land of Keweenaw, an environmental group she works with, sent the photos to the Department of Environmental Quality and later to the press. She didn’t send them to Walsh, who was surprised by the allegation of utility poles on the property.

“I think maybe a utility pole looks like a tie. We don’t get them here,” he said.

Told of the photos, he repeated his assertion the plant does not grind and burn utility poles for fuel, adding “if they’re there, they’re there without my knowledge.”

So what’s the big deal about burning power poles, anyway? And does this mean L’Anse-Warden is in danger of a third permit compliance violation in recent months?

The root issue, said DEQ Senior Environmental Quality Analyst Ed Lancaster, is that most utility poles have been been treated with high levels of pentachlorophenol (PCP), a chemical wood preservative L’Anse-Warden cited as the likely culprit behind a high hydrogen chloride emissions test in September. That test earned the company a compliance violation notice from the DEQ.

Lancaster said the plant had been chipping and burning PCP-treated railroad ties prior to the high test, but has since committed to not burning PCP ties at least until they can negotiate a new temporary consent agreement with the DEQ.

Walsh said at the L’Anse Village Board meeting Monday the power plant is currently removing all ties that test high for PCP from their lot, and shipping them back to supplier Canadian National, or to landfills.

Lancaster, however, said while he was convinced there were some utility poles in the fuel yard, he wasn’t particularly concerned about whether they were named as fuel in the permit, as long as L’Anse-Warden didn’t burn PCP-treated poles.

“If they’re creosote treated poles (without high PCP levels), we wouldn’t have an issue of them being ground-up,” he said. “We’re relying on their statement that they’re not burning fuel with pentachlorophenol in it.”

At the moment, that’s largely a matter of trust. The plant conducted emissions tests in December that appeared to be compliant, and Lancaster was there for one of them. But those tests aren’t considered official as they didn’t fully follow DEQ protocol, and the DEQ can’t require any further tests until they’ve reached a consent agreement with the company that outlines new requirements and a testing plan.

Lancaster said the DEQ and L’Anse Warden met Dec. 3 to hammer out a draft consent agreement, but the two sides were unable to agree on a deal. He didn’t want to hazard a guess as to how much longer that would take, but noted there would be an opportunity for the public to comment on the draft at that point.

“I’ve gotten calls from people frustrated by how much time it’s taking, and I can sympathize with that,” he said.