ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives voted unanimously Thursday to prohibit the burning of railroad ties treated with creosote used to fuel two biomass plants in Northeast Georgia.
Neighbors of the two plants in Madison and Franklin counties began complaining when the plants started operating last year that the burning was fouling their air and contaminating their water.
“The people who lived in close proximity were highly impacted,” Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the creosote bill’s chief sponsor, said during a brief floor debate. “Some of them had to move out of their homes.”
Powell said local elected officials were told the plants were going to burn wood chips when Birmingham, Ala.-based Georgia Renewable Power filed permit applications for the facilities in 2015. But one year later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lifted a federal ban on burning creosote-treated railroad ties, clearing the way for the plant operators to switch fuels.
Creosote has been linked to cancer and some respiratory problems.
House Bill 857 includes a provision carving out of the legislation’s provisions a manufacturing plant near Dublin operated by WestRock. While the plant’s permit allows it to burn railroad ties treated with creosote, an official with the state Environmental Protection Division assured members of a state Senate committee considering a similar bill last month that the Dublin facility is not doing so.
Powell’s bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.