HANOVER — About 15 people, most opposed to a proposed biomass plant Dartmouth College is considering to heat its campus, met Wednesday night to discuss concerns about the harmful effects of wood-burning plants on air quality and the environment.

Miriam Osofsky, a member of the Upper Valley Clean Air Committee who helped organize the forum, referenced a recent article in The New Yorker magazine where environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote, “For all intents and purposes, in the short term, wood is just another fossil fuel, and in climate terms the short term is mostly what matters.”

“Dartmouth wants to transition from burning oil #6 (heating oil) to burning wood, substituting one carbon-intensive, toxic fuel for another,” she said. “It’s hard to let go of a plan you created with loving intentions and prolonged hard work, but Dartmouth … need(s) to accommodate the latest scientific findings and reverse course.

“To do otherwise would be irresponsible in light of the climate emergency and the right of in-town residents, especially children and the elderly, to good health.”

Dartmouth has identified three possible sites in Hanover for its biomass plant, which would replace a 121-year-old power plant in downtown Hanover, but last month also said it is considering “non-combustion” alternatives after prominent alumni environmentalists raised concerns that burning wood chips contributes to global warming.

At the meeting Wednesday at the Black Recreation Center in Hanover, Energy Justice Network founder and director Mike Ewall, who has been involved in environmental activism since he was a high school student in 1990, said he has dedicated his life to defeating proposals for fuel-burning plants. He said that he had helped to stop more than 40 biomass projects in the last five years alone.

Although Dartmouth’s plant would utilize the latest biomass technology, Ewall believes that burning any type of fuel is inherently out of date.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a more efficient burner, burning a dirty fuel is still inappropriate and unnecessary,” he said.

Ewall said that while woodburning plants generate energy, they also produce toxic ash and air emissions that are, in some respects, worse than those produced by burning coal: burning wood produces consistently finer particulate matter, 16% more nitrogen oxide emissions, 50% more carbon dioxide emissions, and seven times more dioxins, which Ewall called “the most toxic manmade chemicals known to science.”

Both Osofsky and Ewall also noted the potential health implications of a biomass plant for Upper Valley residents.

Osofsky, who has asthma, said in an email to the Valley News that “even many physicians are not aware that burning wood — whether on the scale of an incinerator or in one’s own home — is toxic,” and pointed to data from the American Lung Association saying that unfiltered particulates from burning wood can lead to long-term health impacts.

Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said in an email that “plans are to design the plant to minimize emissions, including particulate emissions.”

She said that the plant would use an electrostatic precipitator to trap microscopic particulates with an electric current, reducing emissions to less than 2% per unit of energy produced than those of a typical EPA-certified wood stove.

She also noted that ash produced by clean biomass “can be utilized in a number of ways, such as for fertilizer in farming, or it can be disposed of in a landfill” depending on its composition.”

Ewall was challenged at the meeting for not considering Dartmouth’s specific proposal, which is committed to environmental responsibility, or that the school is considering other options besides biomass that would not involve burning fuel.

When asked about potential solutions for heating buildings other than biomass, Ewall said that the college should start by weatherizing buildings — weather-stripping windows and implementing room-to-room temperature controls to avoid overheated students opening their windows and wasting energy.

“You don’t want to start with ‘how do we make the energy?’ while also wasting half of it,” he said.

He also suggested that Dartmouth should look into implementing new, high-efficiency building systems, like LED lights that would not heat the air in dorms, before turning to a permanent heating solution.

Lauren Adler can be reached at ladler19@gmail.com.