OSHA

- by Scott Miller, March 22, 2015, Post Independent

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"430","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 250px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]A plant that generates electricity by burning beetle-killed wood had only been operating for a few months when a December fire badly damaged the facility’s conveyor system. The plant has been closed since, and will probably remain closed until summer.

The plant, built by Provo, Utah-based Eagle Valley Clean Energy, used about $40 million in federal loan guarantees to finance the project. The idea was to use beetle-killed wood to generate electricity, since there’s a decades-long supply of dead trees in the forests around Gypsum. The plant was intended to generate about 11.5 megawatts of power per hour — 1.5 megawatts to power the plant and 10 megawatts to be sold to Holy Cross Energy. That’s enough for about 10,000 homes, backers say.

Some neighbors of the plant have worried about air, water and noise pollution. But an Environmental Protection Agency website lists only two minor water-quality violations — one each in 2012 and 2013 — and no enforcement actions against the plant.

- October 21, 2014, MyArkLaMiss.com

The worker who died after an accident at a Drax Biomass plant in Morehouse Parish has been identified as 32-year old Christopher Erving of West, Mississippi

Erving was a contracted employee of the Jacksonville, Florida based Haskell Corporation 

Drax Biomass has released a statement on the incident:

"It is with deep regret that we confirm the death of a contractor involved in an incident at the Morehouse Pellet Plant construction site near Bastrop Louisiana in the early evening of Tuesday, October 21st. Site emergency plans were enacted immediately and the injured person was air-lifted to hospital by the emergency services where he later died. The incident is now the subject of a full and thorough investigation by ourselves, the contractor's firm, and the authorities. We are unable to give any details of that investigation until it has been concluded. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family”

- October 13, 2014, The Paper of Montgomery County

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"124","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"194","style":"line-height: 20.6719989776611px; width: 259px; height: 194px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","width":"259"}}]]

After 1 a.m., a call came in about a fire at the Valero plant, just off of U.S. 231 near Linden. Firefighters from six departments responded to the plant just after 1:30 a.m.

Linden firefighters say the fire started in the dryer area which is on the west end of the facility.

Earl Heide from the Linden Fire Department said it took five hours to put out all of the hot spots. He said there is major damage to the west section of the plant.

Authorities said no one was injured in the incident.

State investigators are currently trying to determine the cause of the fire.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"120","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"line-height: 20.6719989776611px; width: 333px; height: 250px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]- October 14, 2014, Bioenergy Insight

An explosion at Pinnacle Renewable Energy's wood pellet plant in British Columbia injured three and resulted in around 30 employees being evacuated.

The incident happened on 9 October after a fire broke out inside equipment used to dry wood fibre. The plant's built-in suppression system had already extinguished the flames by the time fire fighters arrived.

The plant was last inspected on 17 June 2014, when no problems were found.