JACKSON, Miss.—A Mississippi permit board rejected global biomass manufacturer Drax’s bid to scale up production in a southwest Mississippi town, delivering a victory to residents who blame the company for worsening air quality in the area.
After nearly four hours of deliberations, Mississippi’s Environmental Quality Permit Board in Jackson denied Drax’s request to reclassify its Gloster, Miss., plant as a “major” source of hazardous air pollutants, or HAPs. The change would have raised the threshold for harmful emissions authorized at the facility, which has previously been cited for multiple air pollution violations.
Five board members voted against the new permit and one member abstained.
“Today, we’re denying these requests,” Permit Board Chairman Doug Mann said at the April 8 hearing. “We encourage (Drax) to continue to work with (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) staff to monitor those chemicals … and keep them out of the environment.”
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Boasting a formidable presence in the southeastern United States, United Kingdom-based Drax produces wood pellets from local forests used to generate electricity—a process that releases dust particles and various hazardous substances like acrolein and methanol. The company has touted its product as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, though growing evidence suggests the production and burning of wood pellets yields more climate-warming emissions on a cumulative basis.
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Since 2016, when Drax opened its facility on the fringes of downtown Gloster, residents have reported a range of respiratory illnesses and other health problems that they insist stem from the plant’s operations. Local organizers and advocates have held numerous events over the years to highlight conditions in the town, with some even traveling to the UK to meet with top Drax executives and demand reforms to their overseas business practices.
Residents used last week’s permit board meeting as another opportunity to underscore their
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