GOLDEN — A stalled biomass project that would turn forest debris into pellets for woodstoves is being revived by Jefferson County commissioners.
Two potential sites for the operation — one near Rocky Flats along Colorado 93 and the other near Indiana Street and Colorado 72 — will be assessed by the end of February.
The county has received $2.5 million in federal money since 2005 to kick-start the project. The money will pay for assessment, engineering, geologic study and final design, but not construction.
“It’s time to bring this to life,” said Commissioner Kevin McCasky. “We would get a slash collection point while creating defensible space through wildfire mitigation” for about 63,000 county residents in the high-wildfire-risk area called the “red zone.”
Commissioner Kathy Hartman agreed, saying the seed money would allow the county to help a commercial venture become self-sufficient “while providing an important public service.”
Forest Energy Services, which has a similar enterprise in Show Low, Ariz., is interested in making pellets in Jefferson County for residential wood stoves and commercial boilers.
“We definitely want to come,” said Rob Davis, president of Forest Energy Systems.
Davis said he has narrowed the search for a Jefferson County parcel down to the two sites, with both being about 20 acres.
“There really is not a huge market, and it would be a relatively small facility,” Davis said. “We would need 35,000 to 70,000 tons of product annually,” including slash, or forest waste, and thinned ponderosa pine.
A 2005 county study found that about 166,000 tons of forest material would be available annually through tree thinning, construction waste and slash collection.
