A petition for an administrative hearing has been filed regarding a bioethanol plant planned for Fernandina Beach.
Last November, Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) applied to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for an air quality permit to build the plant in its Fernandina Beach campus. According to the permit application, which was submitted Nov. 13, RYAM is proposing to build a second-generation project plant that will use spent sulfite liquor, a product of its process at the plant, as the basis for ethanol fermentation. The proposed plant will be capable of producing approximately 7.5 million gallons of bioethanol for sale each year. FDEP has said it will approve that permit.
Tom Budd filed a petition for an administrative hearing, naming the FDEP and RYAM as respondents. Budd lives near the plant, the petition said.
The petition notes that the project did not go through a Potential Significant Deterioration review and asks that that review is conducted by FDEP.
“Petitioners (Budd) dispute the data included in the air construction permit as incomplete and
inaccurate and allege that the projected actual emissions of key pollutants exceed the allowable
limits set by applicable regulations and trigger Potential Significant Deterioration (PSD)
review,” the petition said.
“A significant deterioration of air quality occurs when the air emissions of certain pollutants exceed their established individual thresholds. When this situation is anticipated, a Potential Significant Deterioration (PSD) review is triggered and must occur prior to issuing a final air permit. According to the applicant’s own Annual Emission Reports to the DEP for the past three years (2021, 2022, 2023) and the projected actual emissions shown in their air permit application, air emissions will exceed the threshold of several toxic pollutants NOx, SO2 and CO. Therefore, the proposed bioethanol plant must undergo a PSD review.”
The petition asks the matter be heard by an Administrative Law Judge in the Division of Administrative Hearings and that FDEP deny the air quality permit. It also says Budd is open to mediation within the Division of Administrative Hearings.