Notice of Public Hearing
Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board
P. O. Box 2261
Jackson, MS 39225
Telephone No. (601) 961-5171

Public Notice Start Date: October 9, 2019	MDEQ Contact: Ivelina Pilgrim

Alternative Energy Development Copiah LLC, located at 19120 Highway 51 South, in Hazlehurst, MS, (903) 767-0255, has applied to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for the following permitting action(s): Permit to Construct Air Emissions Equipment (Ref. No. 0600-00075). The applicant's operations fall within SIC Code 2499 (Wood Products, Not Elsewhere Classified). An air construction permit application was received on October 31, 2018. A Permit Review Summary (PRS) has been prepared that contains a discussion of the decision-making that went into the development of the draft permit and provides the permitting authority, the public, and other government bodies a record of the technical issues surrounding issuance of the permit.
The permit board will hold a public hearing on this matter at 7 pm on November 12, 2019 at the Copiah County Community Safe Room, located on 1060 Epps Ln. in Gallman, Mississippi. 
Alternative Energy Development (AED) Copiah LLC is requesting an air construction permit for the construction of a greenfield wood pellet production facility. It will be designed to produce approximately 473,040 oven-dried tons (ODT) of wood pellets per year utilizing up to eighty-five percent (85%) softwood by weight. Overall, AED will include the following process units: a log chipper, a bark hog, a debarker, a green screen, overs chipper, rotary drum dryer, dry hammer mills, pelletizers, wood pellet coolers, final product load-out operations, and other ancillary activities. Facility-wide operations have the potential to emit over 250 tons per year (tpy) of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Particulate Matter (PM), PM less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10), and PM less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) respectively. Therefore, the draft permit contains federally enforceable operational restrictions and pollution control devices requirements to keep the emission of each aforementioned pollutant at or below 245.0 tpy. The emission control devices will also reduce the emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) below the major source threshold of 25 tons per year for combined HAPs and 10 tons per year for individual HAPs. AED will have federally enforceable limits restricting the HAPs to 9.0 tpy of an individual HAP and 24.0 of all HAPs combined emission limitations; therefore, AED will be classified as an area source of HAPs.  
The staff of the Permit Board has developed this draft permit based on information submitted to the Permit Board by the applicant, appropriate State and Federal agencies and other interested parties. The staff of the Permit Board is soliciting all relative information pertaining to the proposed activity, including public comment, to ensure that the final staff recommendation on the draft permit complies with all State and Federal regulations. Public review and comment on the draft permit and supporting documentation is an important element in the staff evaluation and resulting recommendation to the Permit Board. The draft permit conditions have been developed to ensure compliance with all State and Federal regulations but are subject to change based on information received as a result of public participation.
Persons wishing to comment upon or object to the proposed determinations are invited to submit comments in writing to Ivelina Pilgrim at the Permit Board's address shown above, no later than November 12, 2019. All comments received by this date will be considered in the formulation of final determinations regarding the application(s). Any comments relative to zoning or economic and social impacts are within the jurisdiction of local zoning and planning authorities and should be addressed to them.
The Permit Board is created by Mississippi Law for the purpose of issuing or denying, under such conditions and limitations as it may prescribe, environmental protection permits to control or prevent the release of contaminants into the air and waters of the State.  By law, the Board is composed of the Chief of the Bureau of Environmental Health within the State Department of Health; the Director of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Director of the Office of Land and Water Resources within the Department of Environmental Quality, the Supervisor of the State Oil and Gas Board; the Director of the Department of Marine Resources; the Director of Geology within the Department of Environmental Quality; and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce or their respective designees.

The Purpose of this hearing is to explain the proposed project and to receive comments from the public regarding the project and particularly the draft permits and the disclosure statement. Upon arrival at the public hearing, everyone will be asked to register and note if they expect to make a statement. Statements will be received in the order of registration (i.e., first to register will be the first to give public comment).  However, everyone will be given an opportunity to comment including those who indicated during registration that they did not expect to comment.  Persons commenting will not be limited to any specific time so long as the comments are reasonably concise and relate, at least generally, to the responsibilities of the Permit Board.  However, because a large number of people often wish to speak, comments should be as brief as reasonably possible.  Comments can be presented in writing if preferred. In order to help facilitate understanding between citizens and the Permit Board staff, the staff will attempt to answer questions at the hearing. However, such interchanges should be as brief as possible so that everyone who wants to speak has the opportunity as promptly as possible.
All comments made during this public hearing will be transcribed and made a part of the Permit Board file in this matter. Before making any decision, the Board will consider all issues and concerns raised regarding environmental protection. Any interested party aggrieved by the decision of the Permit Board may file a written request for a formal hearing, after the formal evidentiary hearing the Permit Board will make its final decision in the matter. Any person aggrieved by that decision may appeal to the chancery court in the county of the proposed project.
Additional details about the application(s), including a copy of the draft permit(s), are available by writing or calling the Public Records Request Officer at the above Permit Board address and telephone number. Additionally, as a courtesy, for those with Internet access, a copy of the draft permit(s) may be found on the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s website at: http://opc.deq.state.ms.us/publicnotice.aspx. Additional documents can be found on the Online Public Hearing link at: http://opc.deq.state.ms.us/publichearingheader.aspx. This information is also available for review at the following location(s) during normal business hours:
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Pollution Control
515 E. Amite St 
Jackson, MS 39201 
George W. Covington Memorial Library
223 South Extension Street
Hazlehurst, MS 39083    

Please bring the foregoing to the attention of persons whom you know will be interested.