Many Biomass power stations also burn waste woods, municipal wastes, and agricultural wastes, even preserved woods. Many of these burn gas to reduce emissions at start-up, shutdown or to stabilise combustion. Will Southwood use gas?  If so, what would the route of the gas pipeline be? Since we have no documentation, we cannot be sure exactly what fuels will be burned at Forestry Tasmania's proposed Southwood facility.

Shasta County, California has several such facilities including plants at Burney. Could one of these be the one shown in the Southwood presentations?

(Permit Number 85-VP-05g) Maximum permissible air contaminants listed at one Burney Facility burning wood and almond hulls (not to exceed 5%).
 

SO2 (sulphur oxide)	10 tons per year
NOx (nitrogen oxides)	210 tons per year
CO (carbon monoxide)	1550 tons per year
PM (particulate matter)	40 tons per year
HC (hydro carbons)	120 tons per year

We found this and other examples at URL (internet address)
http://arbis.arb.ca.gov/fcaa/tv/tvinfo/permits/sha/sha.htm

The US Environmental Protection Agency associates emissions of sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides with acid rain. The prevailing westerly wind, at the proposed site, could easily  drive any emissions toward Judbury and the Huon Valley.

At this point, there is no information about the emission profile of Forestry Tasmania's proposed Southwood power generation facility. In the absence of documentation, such as that provided to US residents, we must assume the worst. It seems possible we will eventually burn agricultural and/or municipal waste. There is a municipal waste facility planned for Brighton (a few kilometers north of Hobart).