L’ANSE — Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials fielded a battery of questions about the L’Anse Warden Electric Company Wednesday, primarily from Friends of the Land of the Keweenaw.

Ideally FOLK would like to see the L’Anse power plant run on natural gas, which produces less emissions than current fuels sources like railroad ties.

” …LWEC is not a biomass facility as classified by the DEQ,” FOLK said in a press release earlier this year. “It is clearly a commercial and industrial solid waste incinerator. The facility burns a non-homogeneous mix of wood chips, wood processing water, chemically treated railroad ties tire chips and natural gas.”

While it has been cited for emission violations in the past, the company’s stack test last month determined contaminant levels were within safety limits.

“We’ve had eight years of your monitoring and oversight,” said FOLK member Catherine Andrews. “It hasn’t worked (and) doesn’t inspire confidence in us.”

While the company quit burning pentachlorophenol-treated railroad ties from Canada nearly a year ago, it still burns ties treated with creosote from the United States. MDEQ officials said the company turns away the Canadian deliveries which are now sent to the K&W Landfill near Greenland.

MDEQ is considering the company’s application for a draft permit that removes the PCP-treated ties from the company’s list of burnable materials since burning the products raise hydrogen chloride (HCl) emissions, which state and company officials blame for past violations. MDEQ is also working on a consent order with the company to resolve the past violation for excessive HCl emissions and create enclosures to minimize the fugitive dust emissions so many in and around L’Anse see as dangerous to people, plants, the air, water and soil.

“Without your complaints, we wouldn’t know about the fugitive dust,” said MDEQ Supervisor Chris Hare. “I understand your frustration. I really do.”

As part of the draft consent order, the company would pay a $108,700 fine now and be subject to a fine of up to $10,000 per day for any potential future violations, Hare said.

“They’re typically hit with the full amount,” Hare said.

One man in the audience pointed out that individuals are only allowed to burn clean wood, not railroad ties, and like many others, wondered why the plant can legally burn any treated wood and other potentially hazardous material like tires.

“You’re on our payroll, but you’re not protecting us,” he said.

People at the session didn’t trust the company to self monitor and were frustrated by the MDEQ’s lack of control over what the plant can burn.

“We don’t have the authority to tell” plants what they can burn, Hare said, adding the agency can show up without warning to do testing, but only has done so by setting up appointments in advance.

A formal hearing on the permit will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the L’Anse High School cafeteria. Another informal, informational question-and-answer session will precede the hearing at 6 p.m.

“We want to hear from you,” Hare said. “If you have issues, call us.”

Citizens are asked to report the day and time they observe black smoke or strong odors coming from the plant to MDEQ Senior Environmental Quality Manager Ed Lancaster at (906) 250-5124 or lancastere1@michigan.gov.