LONGVIEW — Longview residents may have noticed a large, white dome poking out from an industrial area near the port earlier this month. They also may have noticed the dome disappeared Friday.
The dome was inflated as a support structure for future construction on an incoming wood-pellet plant. It was deflated Friday, after the Southwest Clean Air Agency notified UK-based energy company Drax that the dome hadn’t been reviewed by the agency yet and therefore wasn’t permitted to be built.
On March 21, the agency withdrew Drax’s draft air discharge permit and cancelled public hearing on the permit scheduled for Thursday. The hearing will be scheduled at a later date once the agency receives and reviews more information from the company.
Grant Stoker, a communications representative for plant operator, Drax, said the company paused a majority of the work on the plant after the regional clean air agency initially sent notice that it hadn’t permitted the construction of support structures on March 12.
The Southwest Clean Air Agency issued a draft air discharge permit for the company, which outlines how much polluting emissions the facility is permitted to emit during its construction and once it starts operating.
