Air District Urges Biomass Revival to Protect Ag Industry

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Board Nov. 19 voted to take steps to thwart increased pollution levels from open burning of growing piles of agricultural wood waste given the demise of biomass power plants. The quantity of wood waste in the valley is considerably higher because of the enduring drought. Much of the agricultural waste is from the wide spread cutting down of orchards.

Nearly a dozen growers are seeking district permission to recommence burning waste on their fields, a practice that was slashed in 2003 by state law to improve the region’s poor air quality.

“If the biomass power capacity does not return to previous levels, this situation will only get worse, especially given the hundreds of thousands of acres of orchards, vineyards and other agricultural crops that have been fallowed in response to the drought” a district staff memo states.

The district voted 12-0, with one abstention- to urge the California Public Utilities Commission to use its authority to extend existing long-term contracts between investor-owned utilities and biomass plant owners, as directed by Gov. Jerry Brown. In his Oct. 30 proclamation, Brown laid out strategies for curbing the threat of wildfires through the reduction of hazardous fuels, including using dead and dying tress to fuel biomass generated electricity (Current, Nov. 13, 2015).

The board also agreed to review the state of the valley’s biomass power industry and other feasible waste disposal alternatives. That assessment will help it decide whether—or to what extent—to roll back its current air quality protection rules and allow open burning of agricultural wastes.

Since 2012, six biomass facilities in the San Joaquin Valley have or will close by the end of this year. “As a result, many agricultural growers have lost the primary economically feasible disposal option,” board staff noted.