Wood burning plant almost went unnoticed in Georgia county with high asthma rates
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Public awareness gaps hinder input on billion-dollar biomass plant in rural Georgia.
- Technical comment requirements limit effective community engagement with EPD.
- Proposed plant raises pollution, cost and health concerns among residents and experts.
In rural Georgia, a new biomass plant that critics say will cost billions of dollars will burn wood to create steam, powering a local cellulose plant and sending energy to the Georgia Power grid.
Whether or not it will get approved now lies in the hands of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. That agency will assess public comments and either approve or deny an air permit before the new Altamaha Green Energy plant can be built.
Commissioners, environmental advocates and involved citizens largely didn’t know about the incoming biomass plant in Jesup, which is in Wayne County. But they have a limited amount of time to weigh in to cite their concerns for potential pollution by submitting comments to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
Last September, a host of comments were sent by engaged Georgians from across the state to the Georgia Public Service Commission, pleading for the commissioners not to approve the biomass project.
The 70 megawatt project was part of a request by Georgia Power in the company’s 2022 Integrated Resource Plan. One megawatt is enough energy to power 400 to 900 homes for a year, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jan Hediger, a Jesup resident and timber owner adjacent to the Altamaha River, wrote to the commission in an online comment last September, asking them to deny Georgia Power’s request.
“Biomass electricity is costly to ratepayers. It costs more than other proven renewable energy. Bioenergy has been an expensive failure in other cities,” Hediger said. “This plant will harm communities. Biomass burning produces toxic air pollution. It can cause heart and lung disease and cancer. Thank you for your consideration.”
Three dozen people across Georgia shared similar sentiments to Hediger in their comments to the commission.
But four of the five commissioners approved the proposal, and the Altamaha Energy Group was born. The new venture would provide up to 70 MW of energy to Georgia Power’s grid and replace an old boiler in an existing cellulose plant in Jesup, called RYAM.
The deadline for Georgians to submit a public comment about the Altamaha biomass permit is Friday at 4:30 p.m. and there will be a public hearing on Monday at 6 p.m. on Zoom for further comments. The comment period opened May 7, according to Georgia EPD Permit Program Manager Steve Allison.
Hediger is part of a Georgia environmental watchdog group, No Ash At All, and told the Ledger-Enquirer via email that “no one is aware of the deadline or the hearing.”
Treva Gear, the Georgia community organizer with the Dogwood Alliance, spoke to the Wayne County Commissioners on June 2, telling commissioners there is a lack of awareness about this incoming plant and community health is at risk.
“Lots of people don’t know that this is happening,” Gear said to the Ledger-Enquirer. “It hasn’t been widely publicized. The boiler will increase particulate matter, nitrous oxide and other chemicals in the air that can harm health.”
There’s worry that making the final chance for comment virtual will be a barrier that keeps some from weighing in.
County Commissioner James Thomas suggested the EPD Zoom hearing (which can host up to 300 people) be in person because of the lack of internet access and technical difficulties residents might have in the area.
“It would probably be beneficial to the community that they have an open meeting, not by phone or whatever, because that’s going to cut down on the amount of people who will be able to, you know, have some input,” Thomas said.
Thomas, who has been in his position for 33 years, said RYAM has been great for the community, employing the most people in the region.
Last October a fire broke out at the RYAM plant, but there were no reports of injury.
He was skeptical about the other company, The Beasley Group (Beasley Green Energy), who are the other half of the Altamaha Green Energy joint venture.
“I don’t know anything about the company they’re partnering with, so I’m just trying to get information,” he said.
Commissioner seeks to alleviate pollution fears
During the Monday meeting, Wayne County Commissioner Chair Kevin McCrary tried to reassure Gear that RYAM’s plant manager, Clay Bethea, will likely do all he can to cut down on pollution and “implement some of things Gear is concerned about.”
“I know they have scrubbers and things like that to cut down on pollution but maybe some of these could they could implement them into it to prevent some of this that you’re talking about,” McCrary told Gear.
A wet scrubber is an air pollution control device used in a variety of industries.
The chairman of Altamaha Green Energy, Darrell Beasley did not respond to request for comment about public concerns that the addition of the plant will worsen air pollution issues in the community.
Gear told the Commissioners the Beasley Group, who does wood pellet production in Lumber City and Hazlehurst has a history of permit violations. The EPD did not respond to an open records request seeking information on those violations prior to publication.
How much do public comments matter?
A mom, veteran and entrepreneur near Wayne County argues the public comments made to the EPD are not considered unless they are written in a specific and technical way.
Chriscilia Cox lives 20 miles from Jesup in Glynn County. Cox said as a concerned parent, she wanted to learn more about how to get involved with air quality issues.
Cox admitted never writing a public comment before or responding to a technical form. She attended an EPD public comment class last summer.
“In the class we learned you can’t just (write) ‘my kid has asthma’ or ‘I have to pay this much more for health care’ or the ‘smell of the air is bothering me,’” she said. “The comments have to be scripted in such a way that it talks about the violation of policies of the alleged polluter.”
“What normal citizen will be able to do that?” she said. “Not many.”
The Georgia EPD permitting program manager, Allison, who will host the virtual meeting on Monday, said the EPD considers all comments received and takes them seriously and is sympathetic to concerns. But to have an impact on whether a permit is granted, a comment needs to be “technically based and regulatory based.”
Allison said commenting about an issue of the plant’s location is more a zoning issue, for example. A comment that would be substantive would say “I don’t believe you interpreted this part of the permit correctly.”
The hearing forum on Monday is intended to be a verbal public comment and is not intended for asking questions. He said he’s happy to take questions directly to him but they won’t be answering questions during the hearing.
Neither the EPD nor McCrary responded to requests about whether an in-person hearing request in lieu of or in addition to the Zoom meeting on Monday was granted.
Associate attorney Peter Slag and senior attorney Patrick Anderson of the Southern Environmental Law Center found technical and regulatory pollution issues with the initial EPD application by Altamaha Green Energy.
“The new boiler is quite a bit larger and some emissions are increasing, including fine particulate matter,” Anderson said. “Nobody in this process has done a true analysis of whether the increase of emissions from the new boiler might cause an exceedance of that new standard, which we’re saying needs to be done before they issue this permit.”
Slag said there will be an increase of bad pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act.
“Particulate matter is one issue and there is also the issue of nitrogen oxide, which is one of the main pollutants under the Clean Air Act.”
Anderson said the boiler previously only helped provide energy to steam RYAM, but now it will be used to power the grid.
“They might end up operating a lot more and that will impact emissions too.”
Anne Mellinger Birdsong, a pediatrician and health adviser for Mothers and Others for Clean Air, said adding more air pollution of any kind will make existing conditions in Wayne County worse.
“Wayne County children have a higher rate of hospital admissions for asthma than the average rate in Georgia, and adults have an almost double rate of emergency room visits for any respiratory disease than the average rate for Georgia,” she said in an email.
“(Particulate Matter) PM2.5 is known to increase rates for adults for dementia, stroke, and heart disease and is linked to metabolic conditions like diet and obesity, and for children it increases rates of prematurity,” she wrote.
Gear told the Wayne County Commission on Monday the Altamaha Green Energy plant is a multibillion-dollar project that will cause Georgians to pay higher rates and will not just impact their wealth but also their health.
The cost of the entire project is still cited as a trade secret by Georgia Power, according to the lawyers at SELC.
The Altamaha Green Energy plant is a 30-year contract that would start in 2029.
No new permanent jobs would be added, according to the EPD permit, Gear said, but just some temporary construction jobs.
Neither Gear nor Slag knew how much of the 70 MW plant will go toward RYAM’s steam power and how much will go to Georgia Power’s grid.
“We don’t know and I would be surprised if anyone knows,” Slag said. “There is a lot of flexibility. It is ‘up to 70 mw,’ it will depend on demand. Then they will likely use the boiler to steam (RYAM) for whatever they are doing in their pulping facility.”
The burning of wood adds carbon dioxide to the air, a known greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
Anderson said the assumption that biomass is good for climate or carbon-neutral efforts is wrong.
“The idea is, oh, well, if you cut down trees and you burn them for electricity, the trees will grow back, and we’ll recapture that energy, even if that is true, that’s on the scale of decades, and our concern is climate change is happening much faster than that.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify RYAM’s formal name.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM.
