Wayne.Faulkner@StarNewsOnline.com
Monday, June 30, 2014
A group of environmental organizations is holding a public hearing here Tuesday in opposition to the proposed Enviva wood pellet facility to be built at the Port of Wilmington.
Enviva plans to build two concrete storage domes, rail and truck unloading stations and a ship loader/dock-conveyer system on land leased from the port. The facility is going through the permitting process.
The event will be 7 to 8:30 p.m. at WHQR's MC Erny Gallery, 254 N. Front St., third floor.
Several environment groups charge that the effects of the facility's construction will hurt the state's environment, communities and the climate.
"By allowing for the port expansion the state is greenlighting construction of three new wood pellet facilities" in Southeastern North Carolina and northern South Carolina, said Scot Quaranda, communications director for the Asheville-based Dogwood Alliance. Enviva currently has two pellet-processing plants in North Carolina, in Ahoskie and Garysburg.
"We look at pellets and bio-energy as a false solution to climate change and destructive to forests," Quaranda said Monday.
Pellets are in demand from European electric utilities, which regard them as less polluting than coal.
The N.C. State Ports Authority conducted an environmental assessment of Enviva's Wilmington project and found it would have no significant impact on the environment.
Conservation groups voiced their opposition during a public comment period on the assessment that ended in May. At that time they called for a public meeting on the projec