SANDPOINT — Possible environmental impacts to the region dominated Wednesday's panel discussion on the proposed Newport silicon smelter.

The panel discussion at the Panida Theater was hosted by Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, who said he is against the proposed smelter because he values the clean air, clean water and natural resources of the area.

"If you haven't gotten this already, I am biased," he said. "At the same time, it was my intention to create a very neutral panel. I think it is essential that we have all of the facts, and then we are informed on this issue if we are to have an influence.”

HiTest Sand, the Canada-based company behind plans to build the smelter, declined an invitation by Rognstad to attend the panel. Due to the absence of a HiTest representative, there were more questions than answers throughout the evening.

"We have a long way to go before we have all the facts," said Grant Pfeifer, regional director for the Washington Department of Ecology, who served as one of the panelists.

The panel also included Dan Redline, regional director for the Department of Environmental Quality; Matt Nykiel with the Idaho Conservation League; Shannon Williamson, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper; Deane Osterman, director of natural resources for the Kalispel Tribe; Michael Naylor, Citizens Against the Newport Silicon Smelter board member; and Aaron Qualls, Sandpoint planning and economic development director. The panel was moderated by Ben Olson with the Reader and Chris Bessler with KRFY Radio. Rognstad served as the convener for the panel.

The first question, posed to Nykiel, surrounded potential environmental concerns for Idaho. Nykiel said prevailing winds in North Idaho come from the west, so the emissions from the smelter would predominately blow into the area. Pfeifer said the character of emissions the smelter would create are compounds that are regulated in Washington and Idaho, and the DOE would ensure that human health standards and environmental standards are protected.

"We take the business of air quality very seriously," Pfeifer said.

Osterman said the Kalispel Tribe echoed the concerns of others regarding environmental and human health. He said the tribe wants to be engaged in all steps of the permitting process with political and agency leadership, as well as making sure there are good data sets available.

"So we can understand what's going on, so we can provide the advocacy we need to provide if we don't think things are working out right," Osterman said.

Williamson, who was asked about the potential impacts of acid rain, said the area has been "blessed" by not suffering from acid rain conditions. Lake Pend Oreille has an elevated pH, and is therefore is pure enough it could absorb some acid rain, but that is limited, she said. She encouraged the public to be involved in the process, as it is not a "forgone conclusion" that the DOE will approve HiTest's permits.

Redline was asked about the state of North Idaho's air quality. He said there is a monitoring network across the state, including a site in Sandpoint where they monitor for particulate matter to ensure the area is in compliance with the national ambient air quality standards. Sandpoint was out of compliance with those standards in the 1990s, he said. To date, he said problems typically occur in the winter with inversions and local sources build up, as well as in the summer with wildfires.

Naylor said CANSS members, who are also concerned about the environment and other issues, voiced throughout the discussion that the group has been working to obtain information through public records requests. A CANSS member also took a trip to a silicon smelter in Mississippi, he said, and the plant is not as "rosy" as HiTest would like people to believe.

Qualls spoke briefly about the potential impacts to Sandpoint, such as transportation. While he didn't know the extent of the impact or the exact route the trucks would take, he said the shortest route from HiTest's headquarters in Golden, British Columbia, is through Bonner Ferry and Sandpoint on Highway 95, then Highway 2 to Newport. He said it could be at least 30 trucks coming through each day, creating potential traffic delays, road maintenance and diesel fumes.

While Pfeifer, in particular, did his best to answer the many questions that came his way, information was limited.

To answer some of the questions, the Daily Bee spoke with HiTest President Jayson Tymko Thursday, who said there has been a lot of misconceptions and mis-truths circulating about the smelter plant, particularly on internet blogs.

He said no chemicals are used in the process, which requires quartz, coal and wood chips. Three large electrodes are used to break the oxygen bond, and the coal and wood chips are provided to the mixture to "preferentially bond" with the carbon.

"We do emit a lot of CO2," Tymko said, adding that some of the carbon dioxide will also contain "a little bit of NOx and Sox" — nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides. "We’re above the minimums for the state, which then requires us to go through the SEPA process. We have done all of the modeling and feel very confident about that. And it studies the impact of 300 and some kilometers around the plant site. So we’ve cleared those hurdles."

He said HiTest has been working with the DOE on modeling protocols for several months.

Another "mis-truth," he said, is in regards to the coal and ash. The coal used in the process has to be low ash coal, he said, because any impurities will end up in the product, which has to be greater than 99 percent purity. Therefore, "regular" coal would not work due to the amount of impurities that would end up in the product.

"So there is zero ash at the site, there is zero ash created in the process," he said. We do have a slack that comes of the top of our molten silicon metal, which is sold to aluminum manufacturers. They mix that into their aluminum mixtures, but that is relatively small in proportion. So everything that enters the site leaves as a salable product."

The plant will use a maximum of 8,000 gallons of water per day, he said, mostly due to dust mitigation. A maximum of 37 trucks will be used to haul material. He said the company is looking into rail extensions to use the railroad for hauling, which would drop that number significantly, though all wood chips will be hauled by truck.

Tymko said they will hire 150 people. Six to 10 experienced workers will be brought in, which he said is for safety reasons. Twenty people will be in salaried management positions, while 130 will be hourly. Hourly jobs will average $70,000, though some will be as low as $40,000. Management positions will begin at $80,000 and go well into the six figures, he said.

"We believe in trying to help and get a better employee," Tymko said. "If someone has a good living wage, they feel good about it, they want to work harder. So there is opportunity and we are trying to create living wage jobs."

Finally, he said, silicatosis is a real disease, but it happens from the crushing and grinding of quartz rocks. So at the HiTest mine in Golden B.C., there are silicatosis risks from the crushing and grinding of the rock, but it’s all washed and sized before it’s shipped to the Newport site with no chance of getting the disease from emissions.

He acknowledged the company has yet to submit an application. While they hoped to have it done more than a month ago, he said they want to have a "fully buttoned-up" application with more detail than people historically do.

"If we were a really bad, polluting business, Washington state is the last place we would go," Tymko said. "There are certain states where you can get away with a lot more, and literally, Washington state is the worst one within the United States if you are a bad polluter. That’s why we feel quite confident."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.