Hell of an idea!
We need more of this!

they just tried to do the same thing in PG remember? The hippies torpedoed it due to particulates and other nonsense.

True...but hopefully West Fraser will not be stupid enough to try and put it right downtown!!
That was just plain dumb!

I did not realize we had hippies here. Thought they were out in Dunster.

However, your hatred for anyone associated with concerns for their health is showing through loud and clear gamblor. You go ahead and gamble with your life if you wish, not need for others to do so, however.

Some facts you may wish to respond to:

If the plant is proposed to be at the existing plants to the west of Houston, they are 4km away from the nearest residential subdivison on the western side of Houston.

In PG, the nearest pulp mill to a residential subdivision, is 2.5km from the north eastern edge of the Miller subdivision.

The proposed downtown community energy plant that I am assuming you are talking about was within about 300 metres of the north end of the same subdivison.

These plants are far superior to the former beehive burners in that they put a fraction of the particulates into the air since there are scrubbers used and the product is not just used to heat the air around it, but used to generate usable energy. So, as long as they are reasonably far from a population base, modelling is done to show that there will be no additional impact on the air qulity near that population base, then go ahead and build it.

BTW, PG Pulp started up their cogen plant in 2005 and Canfor has had a wood residue cogen plant in Grande Prairie since 2004. BTW, the plant in Grande Prairies is over 7km from the nearest residential subdivision in Grande Prairie. On top of that, grande Prairie is on the plateau and the plant is in the valley.

So nothing really new about that. Looks like this one may, however, only supply the grid rather than power part of the operation or sell a considerable amount of the generation to the grid.

There are no hippies in Dunster. That is a miconception. Go and checkit out. They are mostly farmers. They make an honest living by working their land.

Cheers

If the desire to breathe clean air means I am a hippie - I'm a hippie! Yippee! Bring on the clean air and water! Take the fluoride and chlorine out of the drinking water, for hippie's sake!

Cheers!

Then I to am a hippies!!!...far out man!
Clean air smells funny!

owl, You (and your hippy cohorts) obviously dont understand the concept of a smokestack. It is supposed to distribute pollutants over a wide area. Ironically, the cleanest spot is directly under or close to the stack. 4-30kms is prime fallout zone. The energy plant proposed for PG had all the latest technology as well and was much MUCH smaller. So theres your daily dose of common sense, hope your brain doesnt explode.

And for the record, the "environmental" movement has done far more damage than any industrial polluter. It is based entirely on bad science and emotions - our forests are a prime example of mismanagement based on current enviro fads. Continuing to burn imported gas instead of local wood is another.

owl, You (and your hippy cohorts) obviously dont understand the concept of a smokestack. It is supposed to distribute pollutants over a wide area. Ironically, the cleanest spot is directly under or close to the stack. 4-30kms is prime fallout zone. The energy plant proposed for PG had all the latest technology as well and was much MUCH smaller. So theres your daily dose of common sense, hope your brain doesnt explode.

And for the record, the "environmental" movement has done far more damage than any industrial polluter. It is based entirely on bad science and emotions - our forests are a prime example of mismanagement based on current enviro fads. Continuing to burn imported gas instead of local wood is another.

gamblor said, "You (and your hippy cohorts) obviously dont understand the concept of a smokestack. It is supposed to distribute pollutants over a wide area. Ironically, the cleanest spot is directly under or close to the stack. 4-30kms is prime fallout zone. The energy plant proposed for PG had all the latest technology as well and was much MUCH smaller. So theres your daily dose of common sense, hope your brain doesnt explode."

This is living by the adage, "The solution to pollution is dilution." These plants still produce pollution that affects our eco-system.

Hmm...well, guess that makes me a hippie too! I care about the environment, economy, health, people's well-being....
*sigh...well, can't please everyone but we can achieve balance in the best interests of the environment, economy, health and our well-being if we just take the time to plan and coordinate the efforts. Implementing a decision based on one extreme or the other benefits no one.

"...particulates and other nonsense."

This is know as the *scientific contribution* to an otherwise rational discussion.

Build taller smokestacks...what a simple (minded) solution!

Taller smokestacks? Wow! Make them soooo tall that if they fall over the end of them will be in Alberta. Then it is their lookout!

"There are no hippies in Dunster. That is a miconception. Go and checkit out. They are mostly farmers. They make an honest living by working their land."

I realize they are primarily farmers, a significant number intitially from the USA during the Vietnam war, originally bringing communal lifestyles and counterculture with them. Obviously you have a very limited view of the spectrum of hippidom, from the bohemian urban groups to the rural, ecology minded communal group that live off the land.

I have known one of them for decades. He is not only a draft dodger, but a deserter who has been given amnesty some 10 years ago and has been back to the USA. He is hard working, has a trade ticket and works at it to support himself and quarter section of land he has where he goes picking mushrooms as well as fiddle heads and grows food under glass.

There is a reason why the Robson Valley Music Festival is located there and not at Summit Lake.

http://robsonvalleymusicfestival.com

Not exactly the normal fare for what you might consider to be a non-hippie farmer.

;-)

gamblor .... you and your gambling cohorts obviously do not understand the concept of a downdraft .... when we have an inversion, or even higher winds which do not allow adequate venting and keep the emissions low to the ground and spread them in a concnetrated fashion in a funnel like shape, then those nearest to the palnt are the hardest hit.

Go check out the modelling reports for a plant. You may have heard that with respect to the recent pellet plant the people hardest hit were those close to the plant. The report said that loud and clear.

The plants we are talking about do not have high stacks such as the pulp mills have. They are considerably lower.

gamblor, remember the incident with the sulfuric dioxide release at the plant next to Rustad when people were overcome with the fumes and had to be taken to hospital. That relase was through their stacks .....

Go take a grade 9 science class .....

In case you fogot about that story and the fact that those who were affected were not those 30 km away but those accross the street.

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/7973/3/marsulex+charged+in+connection+with++sulphur+dioxide+release

gamblor ... you said "The energy plant proposed for PG had all the latest technology as well and was much MUCH smaller"

I have not seen the plans for that plant. If you have, I would not mind having a look at them. The maybe I can reach the same conclusion you have.

Or are you one of those who believes everything the politicians tell you?

apples to oranges. sulphur dioxide is totally different than particulates and a wood-fired plant produces no S02, you're the one who needs to go back to school.

Inversions are a rare occurance, a stack works like it should in NORMAL circumstances ie 99% of the time. I think you are the one who believes what the politicians feed you - you've bought into all the latest hype - you probably believe in "climate change" too. And stacks are common - every car has one, so anyone who thinks diluting their emmissions is unacceptable needs to sell their car before they hate on me for explaining how a stack works, you're all just mad because you were living in a dream land where just because you dont smell or see pollution, then it doesnt exist, which is ridiculous.

Being an environmentalist involves a little more than jumping on the latest anti-this or anti-that bandwagon. Being a hippy doesnt mean you care about a clean world - it means you are a hypocrite. That is your environmental beliefs are misguided and based on false pretences, or to quote the dictionary "1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion
2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings"

Biomass fuel is a green, renewable, carbon-neutral (if you believe that junk) fuel. How it got villified I dont know. Hippies never see the big picture - without that plant all that woodwaste will be burned much more inefficiently, either in town or in the bush(its still pollution). Plus, the natural gas with all its environmental horrors contiues to be used. So who's the polluter now? The people who oppose plants like this are advocating pollution. You just got it out of your backyard effectively dodging your commitment to a cleaner planet. A plant gets proposed in Houston and everybody thinks its great, let them deal with it. But try to build one near you and you come up with all kinds of lame excuses like stack modelling which is at best a wild guess at how things will work or particles or how a district heating plant to heat a few buildings is somehow comparable to a sulphur chemical plant, its pathetic. look up pictures of what a 60MW power plant looks like - it aint little. Greenies shoot themselves in foot by being uneducated and irrational about topics like this. Eventually, people mercifully stop listening.

Well Owl there you go again an 800 word essay on the erroneous term " hippie". A "draft dodger" is not a hippie. The only hippies I know of are in the Nelson area. And I have met many of them through my work in the past.

And besides what do hippies have to do with polution. Because someone makes a dumb statement this becomes an issue.

Cheers