VAIL - We know pine beetles are here in the Vail Valley. And we know they're not going anywhere until they kill most of the lodgepole pine trees.

The ramifications of these pesky bugs could be devastating. There are environmental concerns of fire, erosion and water contamination, and there are the economic consequences: vast bare tracks of land leaving an eyesore, plaguing a community that relies on its scenic beauty for income.

But there may be a silver lining - power.

All the dead wood the beetles will leave behind could be used to produce heat and even electricity for the town of Vail. The vast amounts of wood could feed a biomass plant, which uses organic material to produce power, said former Vail Mayor Ludwig Kurz.

"It's a very doable idea," Kurz said. "There's a tremendous amount of potential firewood that isn't good for much else than burning. It would take something that is a negative at the moment, a visual blight, and turn it into something that could be positive for the community."



The success ...

Kurz pointed to Lech, a premier ski resort in his mother country of Austria, as an example of a community that has used biomass to its advantage after suffering a pine-beetle infestation.

Since installing the biomass plant, which broke ground in 1999, Lech has been able to supply 90 percent of the village's heat through this environmentally friendly and economic method, said Stefan Jochum with the Lech government.

Jim Lamont, the executive director of the Vail Homeowners Association, visited the facility earlier this year and said he was amazed by what he saw.

"I walked away from that experience saying this is something Vail could do that could help remediate the beetle kill," Lamont said.

The plant heats a village about the size of the area from Ford Park to the west end of Lionshead.

"It's totally unobtrusive and environmentally friendly, and it's economically flourishing," he said.

Jochum added that the plant is saving 900,000 gallons of oil every year, which drastically improved the area's suffering air quality.

Lech had an advantage in that many of its businesses needed to replace their boilers when the biomass option appeared on the scene, said Vail Public Works Director Greg Hall, who traveled to Lech with Lamont.

Lech citizens opted to invest their money in the biomass plant rather than new boilers. By trading boilers for smaller biomass units, many businesses, especially hotels, were able to use the space for storage or health spas, Kurz said.

However, Vail doesn't share Lech's timing.

"Five years ago, it would have been a home run," Hall said. "Now, we're a little behind the eight ball, but with the price of natural gas rising, it might calc out."



Money matters

With Vail already undergoing a variety of improvement projects, undertaking another that may cost $5 million to $10 million may be too lofty. It might also be necessary to tear up streets that have just been repaved to install heating pipes to convey the heat to buildings.

While grants and other money are available for such green projects, Hall said he wondered how much money the private sector would be willing to chip in when not faced with aging boilers like in Lech.

In addition to the finances, Hall worried about the space a biomass plant would take up, the mess piles of wood would make as they waited to be converted into energy and Vail's long-term ability to provide fuel for the fire, he said.

"It's a very intriguing process, and it should definitely be investigated," Hall said. "With the price of natural gas ... How long can we afford that?"

If Vail were to try to construct a biomass plant, Holy Cross Energy Member Services Supervisor Steve Casey said, the power company would likely collaborate in some way. Holy Cross offers incentives for installing renewable energy if it meets certain criteria.

Both Kurz and Lamont believe the town could and should install a biomass plant in the next five years, but Hall cautioned much more study is still needed.

"Is it going to happen tomorrow? No," Hall said. "But we need to keep looking at it."

... and the failure

While the biomass plant in Lech paints the pretty picture of what Vail may achieve, the harsh reality is it could be a bust, like a biomass plant installed to heat the community center in Nederland, a town west of Boulder.

The town board commissioned Delta Dynamics Energy, also known as BioEnergy Corporation, for the project. It was to be Delta Dynamics' first and only attempt to date at building a biomass plant and would suck up about $475,000 taxpayer dollars.

"It was kind of a good idea that went bad," said Town Administrator Jim Stevens. "It's not operating right now. It was more trouble than it was worth."

Stevens said the plant's equipment was incredibly picky about what material it would accept. The wood had to be chipped in a specific manner and very clean. Any dirt, rocks or snow that got into the plant would cause a shutdown. Also, while the town thought it had ample wood, they quickly ran out.

"It ended up that buying natural gas to fire the boilers was cheaper," he said. "The plant took up a tremendous amount of wood, and it takes a lot of maintenance."

(The plant in Lech is manned by just two people, Hall said.)

Delta Dynamics vice president Sev Bonnie said the project went as well as could be expected considering Nederland's unwillingness to supply clean wood and find more once they had run out.

"The plant operated very well," said Bonnie, who added his company will bid on Summit County's biomass plant project that aims to heat its hospital and other buildings in Frisco. "This is not rocket science, but it does take some precautions. It's not true that it never worked; it's not true that it never generated heat. It was a nice setup."

Bonnie said the town quit using the plant because the community center is being rebuilt, and thus there isn't a need for the heat. While Stevens mentioned Nederland may try to sell the plant, Bonnie said the plant is a tremendous asset in the face of rising natural gas prices.

"They should try to reincorporate it," he said. "We certainly are a champion of the whole idea."

Despite his town's perceived failure, Steven's remained optimistic about biomass. "I think the concept is good," he said. "Just do the research and know that a lot of things that you don't expect to happen can happen."



The best option?

Biomass plant or not, Vail Town Manager Zemler said Vail will need to manage the forest to keep it healthy. To Zemler, this means trees are going to have to come out.

However, Steve Holmer of the Unified Forest Defense Campaign maintained the best way to manage a forest is to leave it alone. He cited Yellowstone National Park, where a fire was allowed to burn in 1988.

"You see it today, and it's regenerating beautifully," Holmer said.

But Zemler is adamant in our neck of the woods "we can't let it burn."

"If you're out in the middle of Yellowstone, it's a great idea," Zemler said. "But it's not good if you have a ski area and a town. You've got property here."

Matt Scherr, director of the Eagle Valley Alliance for Sustainability, agreed saying, "Whether we want it to or now, that stuff is coming out.

"This is essentially a free or prepaid fuel source," he said. "Talk about killing two birds with one stone."

However, Scherr has reservations about a biomass plant.

"It's a bit untested," he said. "I would say, stay a couple steps behind Summit County. We can learn from them without paying their costs."

Zemler supported Scherr's wait-and-see attitude.

"There's a tremendous amount of biomass opportunity in Summit and Eagle counties," Zemler said. "I think we're going to watch it and see where it goes."



Staff Writer Nicole Frey can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 454, or nfrey@vaildaily.com.



Vail, Colorado