Prison biomass plant choked by supply costs

An $8.3 million plant expected to provide power for two Carson City prisons has run only sporadically because it has not received all the wood it needs to fuel the system.

Officials from the Nevada Department of Corrections had predicted that the plant would replace energy from electricity and natural gas at Northern Nevada Correctional Center and the neighboring Stewart Conservation Camp. The plant, however, has not run more than three days straight since it opened six months ago.

"Wood continues to be an issue for us," said Lori Bagwell, department director of support services. "We do not have an adequate and appropriate supply."

Both the department and Carson City Renewable Resources, the business it contracted to provide wood for the plant, say the problem is the lack of supply from the U.S. Forest Service.

The agency sometimes does give limbs and underbrush that are not used commercially and can be a fire hazard to services that recycle wood. This "biomass" is usually too expensive to move to Carson City to be processed, however.

"We have the supply," said Ed Monnig, forest supervisor of Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest. "It's the cost of getting the wood to plant that's the crux of the matter."

The forest service generally gets rid of the biomass by burning it, grinding it on site or requiring companies that take timber, often in areas the agency wants thinned for fire prevention, to also remove it.

"Generally speaking," Monnig said, "the biomass itself isn't worth enough to pay its way off the mountain."

It's also too expensive for Carson City Renewable Resources itself to remove biomass from the hills west of the city.

Owner Stan Raddon said the business has gotten some wood such as pallets and boards from area manufacturers, but it hasn't been close to enough for the plant.

"It's hard to describe how (the problem) evolved," he said. "(The forest service) just never came through with the wood we'd anticipated we'd receive."

Corrections department officials had said the region had enough wood to fuel a plant that could not only save money, help fire prevention and reduce garbage at landfills, but also be productive enough for the plant to eventually make millions of dollars in profit for the sale of excess energy.

The profits were planned to be used in part to pay off the loan the department used to build the majority of the project.

As other officials praised the plant at its grand opening in September, Monnig and Nevada State Forester Pete Anderson did say at the ceremony that officials might not be able to rely on the forests for all the biomass needed.

The plant is "a long way away" from having the supply available it needs, Anderson said in a speech at the ceremony.

In an interview last week, he said that he doesn't blame anyone for what has happened with the plant, but that progress "has been extremely slow."

"I think the breakdown where this is," he said, "is on federal land."

Why the department of corrections built the plant to take over $2 million-a-year utility bill at the two prisons without a more specific plan is not clear.

A 2005 report by Phoenix-based APS Energy Services said the plant could be fueled by unusable wood, according to Appeal records. It is the same company that built the plant.

"Prior to the construction of the biomass plant at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, we worked with the correctional center to evaluate all factors related to the project, fuel source being one of those," Damon Gross, a company representative, said in a statement.

"We believe the correctional center made the best decision for the State of Nevada taxpayers with the information that was available at the time the decision was made. We continue to work closely with the Northern Nevada Correctional Center during the final phases of startup."

The plant may even eventually be able to run full time, according to Monnig. He said the forest service may get fire prevention grants that would give it the money to move biomass to Carson City Renewable Resources.

More tree thinning around Lake Tahoe is possible, Anderson said, but getting money from the federal government to move biomass could be difficult.

"Natural recourses are not at the top of the priority list," he said. "It's a struggle."

• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.