Just when you think the human race is doomed to bang its collective head against the wall until there is no more wall, and no more humans, you read something like this. The Thompson Falls school district replaced its diesel fuel boiler with a biomass fuel boiler -- so instead of buying diesel to heat the school, the district will buy slash from the Forest Service. The slash will be burned in the (I presume fairly efficient) boiler rather than out in the woods where it sends up a nasty plume of stinky smoke; the boiler will burn wood instead of petroleum-based diesel, meaning fewer emissions (notably aromatic hydrocarbons, many of which are carcinogenic) and less expensive.
"I don't know what we would have done this year, with the price of diesel going up so quickly," said Thompson Falls Superintendent Jerry Pauli. "We had a lot more sixth-graders than normal. We needed another teacher."
With the expected cost savings of about $30,000 from heating with biomass, the district was able to afford that teacher.
Whose great idea was this anyway??
The program, administered by Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, U.S. Forest Service and local Resource Conservation and Development councils, helps schools, hospitals and other public buildings throughout the state put biomass to good use, mainly as a heat source.
”The intent of the Fuels for Schools program is to jump-start the development of a dispersed energy market in the state of Montana, to use what is typically a wasted byproduct of forest management,“ explained DNRC Fuels for Schools coordinator Angela Farr. ”By burning slash in modern, efficient boilers rather than in open piles, we dramatically reduce the air quality impact and use heat that would otherwise be wasted."
Let us stop and ponder this -- our tax dollars are working to make the world cleaner and healthier, and ensure a quality education for our kids. Can we do more of this, please?
I went to school in a small town, too, and I remember how dirty and stinky our diesel fuel boiler was...this seems like a great idea...if only we could get every school to start doing this!
Posted by: Kristina K | October 13, 2005 at 10:19 AM