Cleaner Air Oregon is a health-based permitting program that regulates emissions of toxic air contaminants from facilities based on risk to nearby communities. CAO requires facilities to report toxic air contaminant emissions, assess potential health risks to people nearby and reduce toxic air contaminant risk if it exceeds legal limits.
As part of the Cleaner Air Oregon process, each facility has a dedicated web page to provide communities access to facility information and updates on where it is involved in the process.
- Each step of the CAO risk assessment process has a section that includes DEQ's communications and deliverables from the facility.
- The graphic below shows where a facility is in the Cleaner Air Oregon Process.
For additional information and history of the program, visit the Cleaner Air Oregon website.
The Emissions Inventory provides information on all the Toxic Air Contaminant emissions from a facility, and includes information on a facility's operations and activities, as well as fuel and material usage rates. This is often the longest step in the CAO risk assessment process as DEQ needs to verify that all activities have been accounted for, and that the most representative emissions data available are used. In some cases, DEQ will require a facility to perform source testing at this stage if insufficient data is available to estimate emissions. For an introduction to emissions inventories and why they matter, please see EPA's Fact Sheet.
April 26, 2024: Facility Called In to CAO Program
June 12, 2024: Facility requests extension to conduct Source Testing
June 24, 2024: DEQ Responded to Facility
Sept. 5, 2024: Facility Requests Extension
Sept. 9, 2024: DEQ Responds to Extension Request
Nov. 7, 2024: Facility Requests Extension
Nov. 18, 2024: DEQ Responds to Extension Request
About the Facility
Biomass One, L.P. is an electrical generation facility using biomass as the fuel source in boilers that supply high pressure steam to turbines for power generation and sale to the electrical grid. The electric power cogeneration plant includes two biomass boilers that produce high pressure steam delivered to any of three turbines that can generate up to 30 Megawatts (MW) of electricity. The process includes the handling, processing, and storage of hogged fuel; a cooling tower; and a community biomass recycling center. Woody, organic material is purchased from the market or supplied by the community at a minimal dumping fee and is processed, chipped, and screened to be used as fuel for the boilers. The screened fractions from these processes and the boiler ash are combined into agricultural mulch and sold or disposed of as waste. The facility has been operating since 1986.