Too Hot to Talk About Heating System

Wednesday, July 07, 2010 08:21 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The open house at City Hall to share information on the City’s planned Downtown District Energy System was attended by only a handful of people.

Project Manager Bob Radloff says he was not disappointed or surprised by the small turnout given the fact the weather was so beautiful.

Those who did attend had questions about the longevity of the project which is linked to Lakeland Mills supplying the bio mass needed to fire up the heating system that will provide heat to at least 10 buildings in the heart of Prince George. With the recent downturn in the forest industry, the question was raised about what would happen should Lakeland run into financial difficulty and no longer be able to provide the bio mass needed to fuel the system? Radloff says that is why the planned system will have a back up natural gas fuel component. That means the system will be able to operate at times when Lakeland needs to take downtime.

The environmental assessment process for the system is underway now and City staff expect to file the information they have gathered from stakeholders with Western Diversification within the next week. Once Western Diversification has that information, there will be a 15 day window for further public comment on the project before the environmental process is complete.

Both PACHA ( Peoples Action Committee for Healthy Air) and the Millar Addition Citizens Coalition are filing letters of support for the project as the system is touted as being a positive for the Prince George airshed in reducing particulate emissions and greenhouse gases from a reduction in truck traffic. Because Lakeland will be able to use the biomass on site, it is predicted that will reduce the number of out going truck loads in the core by about 300 trucks per year. Currently those truckloads are heading to Pinnacle Pellet. A point was raised that if Pinnacle is no longer getting the 300 truck loads from Lakeland, the supply will have to come from somewhere, so while it may mean a reduction in loads from the Lakeland site, there is no guarantee there will be 300 fewer trucks travelling through the City to carry product to Pinnacle.

The Energy System is expected to cost about $14 million dollars, with all but about $3.7 million coming from grants from other levels of government. The project is the subject of an alternate approval process because of the length of the contract with Lakeland. The 20 year deal has to be approved by the electorate and eligible voters have until the 21^st of this month to file their displeasure with the plan if they don’t want to see the project go ahead. At this point, opposition has been minimal says Communications Manager Mike Davis “I’ve had plenty of calls about the system and they have been positive.”

Project Manager Bob Radloff says it is hoped the environmental assessment and the results of the alternate approval process can be presented to City Council by the end of this month. If that all falls into place, and Council gives the project final approval, the design stage of the project could begin in August with construction slated for 2011. If approved, the energy system could be up and running in 2012.

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Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2010 08:21 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: supertech on July 7 2010 9:01 PM

Because when Lakeland no longer wishes to cut wood they will be in a position to charge many dinero for that heat.

Posted by: Resident on July 7 2010 9:24 PM

Why bother attending. City hall is hell bent on following through with this money losing make work project. If Lakeland had put a ESP on the energy plant the particulate level would have been reduced from a permitted level of 230 mg/dscm to 25 mg/dscm. Cost of a precipitator installed is probably less than 1.25 million dollars.

Anyway, hats off to Lakeland to get the city to pay for the ESP. Kind off goes down like the sale of the PG hotel where Commonwealth make an easy 1/2 million and the taxpayer ends up holding the bag.

Posted by: Palopu on July 7 2010 9:56 PM

The City had to come up with a **Green** project in order to access money from the Federal Government to the tune of $9 Million dollars. This is the best they could do. The fact of the matter is they could care less about the small amount of emission reduction that will (should) result from this project. What they want is the money so they can spend it.

Thats a rather strange way to do things, however in this day and age it seems to be acceptable.

I think that PACHA should change its name to **Peoples Action Committee for Hot Air**. I doubt if they looked into this project very closely. The truck issue is a case in point and there are others.

While these dudes are talking about the reduction in emissions by bulding this plant, I would be willing to bet that they couldnt tell you what the reduction in emissions are because of the closure of

1. Winton Global on River Road
2. Rustad Bros on Continental Way
3. North Central Plywoods

The closure of these three mills resulted in a huge reduction of emissions, however you never heard a word from anyone about it. Is it because they dont know what the hell is going on???? One has to wonder.

On the other hand the City closed the Cameron St., Bridge for 4 years and created a huge pollution problem with the re-routed traffic, however no one said a word.

Seems we are very selective when it comes to what we consider to be pollution.

Posted by: gus on July 7 2010 10:50 PM

From the above comments.

1. Why bother attending? .... Precisely!!!!! Far too little information presented far too late in the process!!!

2. Putting an ESP on the existing system should have been done a decade or more ago ...

3. If the ESP had been on there before, then the City would not have been able to use that as a promotion for the CH system. Also, the City would not have had to pay for it. This is an indirect subsidy.

4. As far as dust from the sorting yards being reduced. Again, nothing to do with the City tapping into the energy from Lakeland. That is a totally separate matter.

5. Transportation changes being a postive effect on the airshed. Well, maybe not exactly as stated above. The thing is that these systems are keot as simple as possible when used for promoting something specific. The environment as well as the world of economics is much more complex and integrated with many more determinants than are addressed by the City in this and other similar cases.

6. I agree with Palopu on the PACHA thing. I think they totally let the ball drop on this one. I am wondering whether the powers that be are starting to learn how to handle PACHA.

Finally, I think that community energy systems have a lot of merit. They have been around for a long time all over the world. However, to sell such a system in this fashion is to sell it under false pretenses in my opinion. It covers up past lack of strong action by the MoE as well as strong commitment by Lakeland to providing the best available control technology for the health of people in this community.

Posted by: jonnypg on July 8 2010 3:46 AM

All of you guys are so full off wind. Tell the truth!Your all a bunch of liars that will never be trusted ever.again!