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Residents urge Oroville council to pause proposed biomass plant, citing health risks
Summary
Public speakers told the council a proposed biomass power plant in Oroville could worsen air quality and health outcomes, urging the council to consider community impacts before permitting moves forward.
Several Oroville residents used the public comment period at the city council meeting to urge caution and fuller public engagement regarding a proposed biomass facility in Oroville.
Kathy Bridal read a prepared statement and said she had submitted a letter in advance and intended these remarks as her public comment on what she described as a proposed biomass renewable-energy plant. Bridal said she and others view biomass combustion as a significant air-pollution and public-health risk and read summary material from the American Lung Association on health harms from burning biomass, including fine particles that can worsen asthma and cause cardiovascular events, and emissions such as benzene and formaldehyde. Bridal said Oroville is considered a disadvantaged community and that locating a polluting facility there would disproportionately affect vulnerable residents, including children, older adults and people with chronic conditions.
Another commenter (self-identified as “the cameraman” on the record) raised county-level cancer-rate concerns and described that tradeoffs exist between jobs and air quality; he said he was “torn” between supporting employment and protecting clean air. The speaker also raised a separate, local issue about unauthorized rock-stacking near commercial properties, noting code-enforcement contact and possible public-safety and property concerns.
City staff did not announce any immediate permitting action in the meeting record; the speaker noted that a July 1 city-council action asked staff to continue working with proponents of the biomass facility, and Bridal characterized that as the genesis of her public comment. Bridal and other speakers asked whether impacted institutions—schools, daycares, senior facilities, environmental organizations and tourism interests—had been consulted.
No formal council decision about the proposed biomass facility was recorded during the meeting; the public comments were entered into the record for council consideration.
The council did not take any regulatory action on the biomass proposal at the meeting; staff or council follow-up, including a formal environmental review or public-notice process, was not described on the record during the remarks.
