Forest waste may be put to use in South Tahoe High furnace

A machine to churn tons of forest waste into steam to heat South Tahoe High School is slowly moving through the study process toward the design phase to hopeful implementation by summer 2006.

It's called a biomass boiler. Its presence in the Lake Tahoe Basin could help decrease the threat of wildfire by removing flammable vegetation from the forest floor.

Steve Morales, facilities manager for Lake Tahoe Unified School District, said the converted boiler would need 2,200 tons of chipped forest waste annually to adequately heat classrooms as well as water and to melt snow on the walkways at the high school.

By comparison, the basin produces nearly five times that amount of the forest waste each year.

There are hurdles. The California Health and Safety Code has strict requirements on air quality at schools, and wood-burning boilers release more toxic air contaminates than natural gas.

There is no biomass facility in California, making it difficult to study emissions and efficiency and other criteria.

There are biomass facilities in states such as Montana and Vermont that don't have such strict air pollution laws.

A $75,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service is allowing the district to continue to study the feasibility of the biomass machine.

The boiler's estimated cost is between $400,000 and $650,000.