A North Carolina power plant that generates electricity from poultry waste and wood chips has touched off a controversy over an operating permit that, if granted, would imperil public health and wellbeing, residents and environmental advocates in the surrounding community say.
Since it started operating in Robeson County in 2015, North Carolina Renewable Power’s South Lumberton plant has repeatedly exceeded allowable emissions for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, known as PM2.5, and methane–a potent greenhouse gas. The violations have resulted in more than $58,000 in fines and a dozen non-compliance notices for failing to conduct timely emissions testing and faltering in monitoring and reporting of excess emissions, among other failures.
Now the state Department of Environmental Quality has said that, given the higher…