The local residents concerned about the proposed Milltown biomass power plant may have more cause for trepidation after an air-quality permit application was released indicating what the expected emissions from the plant would be. Estimates put the level of nitrogen oxide at 245 tons per year, carbon dioxide at 226 tons per year and just over 11 tons of other chemicals classified as hazardous air pollutants.

Some might be cynical enough to note that these figures all narrowly scrape under the key threshold levels that would classify them as “major sources” of pollution. In the case of nitrogen oxide the threshold is 250 tons. Had the level have been estimated at higher than this point a more involved review process would automatically have been applied to the review process.

Tim Malony, senior policy director with the nonprofit advocacy group Hoosier Environmental Council visited Milltown about a month ago to learn more about the area and the project and found that the plant’s location, less than a mile from the Blue River and amid terrain with underlying caves and streams, raises serious questions.

“That’s really the key environmental issue to us,” Maloney said. “The Blue River has some of the best water quality and biological diversity of any stream in the state of Indiana. That kind of setting and natural diversity is very unusual”

The state has 120 days from the submission to issue a permit. In the next two to three months, the agency’s permitting division will write a permit setting out the details of the project, including emissions limits. Once that is published, citizens and officials can request a public hearing.

There is still a water quality application to be submitted to the state.

The planned start date for the biomass power plant is some time in 2011.

More information about the Milltown Biomass Power Plant can be found in an earlier post at Renewable Energy Development.