The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality (DAQ) is accepting public comment on a draft air quality permit modification for Columbia Plywood Corporation – Columbia Carolina Division, a plywood manufacturing facility in McDowell County.
The modification would allow Columbia Plywood to install an air curtain incinerator (ACI) unit at the facility to burn its wood waste for disposal. This unit will increase the facility’s potential emissions of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide above major-source thresholds, requiring a Title V air quality permit from the state.
Air dispersion modeling reviewed by DAQ demonstrated that the facility’s emissions of toxic air pollutants and the ACI’s emissions of particulate matter are not expected to cause an exceedance of health-based limits. The facility’s throughput and hours of operation will also be restricted to limit emissions of hazardous air pollution…