ENB Region 6 Completed Applications 07/12/2006

This Department has received a request to issue a permit and has drafted an Article 19(Air Pollution Control) of the Environmental Conservation Law(ECL),an Air State Facility Permit, at the facility located at Schuyler Wood Pellet LLC (SWP), Schuyler Business Park, Schuyler, Herkimer County, New York. The facility is to be a manufacturer of wood-fuel pellets that will be formed  primarily from wood residues such as sawdust and shavings, as well as from ground wood chips. The facility will process primarily hardwood species but will be capable of processing some softwood as well.

This facility will be capable of producing pellets at a maximum rate of 15 oven-dried tons per hour. A wood -fired burner will provide heat to a rotary kiln dryer that will dry green wood material to a moisture content of 10 to 14%. The combustion gases from the burner will vent through a 70 foot stack. Hammermills will reduce wood material to the required size for further processing. Three electrically-driven pellet mills will then form the dried wood material into pellets. A pellet-cooling unit will reduce the temperature of the pellets. Pellet packaging machinery will bag pellets for shipment. SWP will use a combination of baghouses and cyclones to collect wood material entrained in exhaust streams for use and/or re-use in making pellets.

The air pollutants of concern are particulates (PMs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO). The Department has affixed caps and/or regulation intended to limit these emissions to a maximum of 91.98 T/yr, 45.99 T/yr and 94.1 T/yr respectively. Visible emissions (smoke) and particulate air loading have been regulated per The ECL. The Department has required DAR-1, SCREEN-3 and ISCLT-2 modeling in an attempt to verify the possible air emissions of 22 other expected chemical constituents; this model has indicated that these pollutant emissions are expected to be within allowable ECL tolerances. Initial stack testing has been required in order to verify actual emissions of this facility.

The SWP site is located on a 14.3 acre parcel at the old Schuyler Drive-In location. Manufacturing, warehouse and office space (approximately 45 feet high) will occupy buildings totaling approximately 39,000 sq ft. A canopy building will cover another approximately 40,000 sq ft area. Approximately seven wood or finished pellet storage silos will measure about 30 feet in diameter and approximately 52 feet high. Construction is expected to begin in August 2006 and production to commence by Spring 2007. SWP can be expected to operate 24 hr/day for 365. The draft permit with conditions is available for review in the Region 6 NYS DEC office in Watertown, New York.

The applicant proposes to add 17 acres to a permitted 15 acre life of mine sand and gravel operation, on a 206 acre parcel owned by the applicant.    The site is located 700' north of CR 79, 3,500' east of CR 75, 0.5 miles east of the hamlet of Rural Hill.  Material will be loaded into trucks from a payloader.  No on-site processing is proposed.