ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
PRAISES INTERNATIONAL PAPER & VERMONT
ACTIVISTS FOR DECISION TO FOREGO TIRE BURNING
AT TICONDEROGA PAPER MILL
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Wednesday, November 15, 2006
TICONDEROGA, N.Y. – The Adirondack Park’s largest environmental
advocacy organization today praised the International Paper Company
for dropping plans to use shredded automobile tires as part of
the fuel that powers its paper mill here.
“International Paper deserves
praise for keeping its word and for a making responsible decision,”
said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal.
“Reports on the tests IP ran over the past two weeks showed
that tire-derived fuel produced far more particulate pollution
than IP or state regulators had anticipated.”
Smokestack pollution containing
high levels of fine particles can cause and worsen lung ailments
in humans and other mammals. It can also limit visibility –
an important consideration in the scenic Champlain Valley, which
separates the eastern Adirondack Park from the dairy farms and
hills of western Vermont.
Several Vermont-based environmental
organizations had protested the test burn, going so far as to
file a lawsuit in an unsuccessful attempt to stop it. While the
Adirondack Council did not join in the lawsuit, it today congratulated
its Vermont colleagues for helping to keep pressure on New York
State officials to conduct a well-monitored test.
Houseal noted that the Adirondack
Council had not opposed the tire-derived fuel test. The organization
instead withheld judgment until it could see the results of the
two-week experiment. On Tuesday (Nov. 14) IP voluntarily shut
down the test after only nine days.
“IP had a difficult choice,”
Houseal said. “It could press for an amendment to its air
pollution permit, hoping that the state would agree to allow
higher emissions from its smokestack. Or it could have invested
millions of dollars into a higher level of air pollution controls
at the smokestack. But if that new investment wiped out the savings
IP planned to achieve by using tires as fuel, IP might just close
the mill and put 500 Adirondack Park residents out of work.
“For those reasons, we felt
our best option was to monitor the test burning carefully and
judge its potential environmental impact with real-world data.
“We also made it clear to
IP and state officials that our support would come to an end
if the testing showed that tire-derived fuel would have a significant
environmental impact,” Houseal explained. “Clearly,
IP didn’t like what it saw and called the whole thing off.
That’s fine with us. That was the right thing to do.”
The Adirondack Council’s
mission is to ensure the ecological integrity and wild character
of the Adirondack Park. Founded in 1975, the Council is a privately
funded not-for-profit organization with 18,000 members in all
50 United States. The Council carries out its missions through
research, education, advocacy and legal action.
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