Critics express reservations with Owens Corning plant

If approved by the Oregon DEQ, a Gresham facility for making insulation will also produce a greenhouse gas

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

CATHERINE TREVISON

GRESHAM -- The controversy over Owens Corning's planned insulation plant in Gresham continued Tuesday at a public hearing on the plant's Department of Environmental Quality emissions permit.

The company's rigid foam insulation is made using an ozone-depleting greenhouse gas called HCFC-142b. But company executives say the foam ultimately offsets its greenhouse gas impact through the energy it conserves.

The gas "is not toxic, and its use is legal," said Paul Lewandowski, Owens Corning's director of regulatory law, noting that the company has volunteered not to stockpile the gas to use beyond 2010, when federal law will phase it out. "We are working diligently to develop an acceptable alternative that does not have the ozone depletion or global warming potential of HCFC-142b," he said.

Since 1995, the company has spent more than $18 million in the search for a substitute, and it plans to spend about $4 million more this year, it said. The current alternative blowing agents generate other pollution through volatile organic compounds, the company said.

But opponents urged Owens Corning to find a new environmentally friendly gas before operating the plant in Gresham. Even if the gas is not directly toxic, depletion of the ozone layer "affects the entire world, and every single one of us in the community," said Vihn Mason, an environmental science instructor at Portland Community College.

In November, three environmental groups sued in federal court to stop construction of the Gresham plant. The Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Sierra Club and the Oregon Center for Environmental Health argued that law prevents Owens Corning from building a new source of pollution without receiving the DEQ emissions permit first.

The DEQ, using a different interpretation of the law, advised Owens Corning that it could build at its own risk but that it had to have the permit before installing emissions equipment, state regulators said.

No state law regulates the gas. The DEQ would have to go through a rule-making process if it wanted to start regulating it, Audrey O'Brien, manager of the DEQ's Northwest Region Air Quality Program, said Tuesday.

Several people who testified at Tuesday's hearing urged the DEQ to assert more authority.

"Their job is to be a watchdog for the citizens so we don't have to do their job for them," said Karl Anuta, president of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center.

After the lawsuit was filed, Owens Corning agreed to suspend construction. The building at 18456 N.E. Wilkes Road has walls and a roof but no equipment inside.

The company hopes it can begin production six to nine months after getting its DEQ permit.

"Technically, we probably needed the capacity a year ago," said Frank Cooper, operations leader of Owens Corning's insulating systems business, who said the company hasn't been able to make enough of the foam product to supply all its customers.

Owens Corning uses HCFC-142b at its three existing rigid foam insulation plants in the Midwest. This gas is less harmful to the ozone layer than the blowing agents used when the company bought the plants, executives say.

Although HCFC-142b is also a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, company executives say their studies show that by conserving energy, the insulation cuts the overall greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels burned for heating and cooling.

Wayne Lei, PGE's director of environmental policy, said he reviewed a company study showing that when the foam is used in housing, the greenhouse gas emissions produced in making the insulation are offset after 1.3 years of use.

It is "a good product that provides a net positive benefit to society," Lei said.

But Anuta said the company should not make a tradeoff between greenhouse emissions and ozone depletion. The majority of those who testified in the first two hours of the hearing also opposed the plant.

"I believe Owens Corning misunderstood the . . . reaction to their application" in Oregon, said Paul Dayfield, who lives near the plant. "They have missed a golden opportunity to set a new standard."

The DEQ will take written comments on the emissions permit until Jan. 24.

Catherine Trevison: 503-294-5971; ctrevison@news.oregonian.com