The Beaver Wood Energy plant in Livermore Falls, Maine
Editor’s note: This story is by Susan Bush, a freelance reporter from Pownal, Vt.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Renewable energy — biomass, solar and wind – comes at an environmental cost. That was the message from four energy experts who spoke to an audience of more than 200 people who packed into Griffin Hall at Williams College on Oct. 28.
“Most energy sources come with risks,” said Richard Ney, an engineer with Minnesota-based Sebesta Blomberg & Associates environmental consulting group.
The panel, “Pros and Cons of Burning Biomass,” addressed concerns swirling around a proposed 29.5 megawatt biomass facility in Pownal, Vt., located 10 miles from Williamstown.
Beaver Wood LLC filed an application seeking a certificate of public good with the Vermont Public Service Board on Oct. 25. Two local groups — Concerned Citizens of Pownal and Concerned Citizens of Williamstown—have opposed the project. Several Williams College instructors have challenged the plant’s safety and viability. Citizens groups have raised concerns about declining property values, air and water quality, water usage, noise pollution and emissions from smokestacks and large trucks.
The panelists included Nye, Henry Art, a biology professor at Williams College, David Dethier, a college geosciences professor and hydrologist, and Jeffrey Hand, an attorney from Burlington, Vt.
Hand outlined the PSB hearing process. A certificate of public good balances potential benefits and consequences of a given proposal, Hand said. The key question he said is: “Will the project serve the general good of the state?”
The certification process, Hand said, includes an investigation of the present and future need for power; the stability, sustainability and reliability of the proposal; economic benefits; the impacts on aesthetics, historic sites, regional development, air and water purity, natural resources and the environment; as well as public health and safety.
Out-of-state residents who “demonstrate a substantial interest that they can be adversely affected” are not prohibited from participating as “interveners,” Hand said.
“The Board looks at issues from a broad context,” he said. “It’s about how everything weighs out, and what you can bring to the discussion. It’s important to be honest and direct.”
He cautioned residents against “over advocating” and “puffery.”
“Puffery doesn’t get you very far,” he noted.
PSB decisions are eligible for Vermont Supreme Court appeals, he said.
Hand urged people to do their own research. “Get the facts,” he said. “In any proposal that is controversial, you will have spin on both sides.”
Ney also cautioned against the use of second-hand information. Nye said journalists homed in on a singular phrase “wood is worse than coal” from the Manomet Center for Conservation Studies and the out of context reporter focus was so inaccurate that Manomet officials “were compelled to comment on their own study.”
Hand, who owns property next to the MacNeil facility, told the audience he has no qualms about living within 2,000 feet of the power generation plant.
“In my mind, it’s a positive,” Hand said. “I like that our municipal power is produced locally and we have control over it. There are localized impacts but they can be addressed.”
Professor Art produced a series of charts and mathematical calculations that attempted to explain whether the Beaver Wood proposal will be able to supply itself with “waste wood” from within a 50-mile radius around the plant, without depleting local forests in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. Beaver Wood has said it would use 330,000 tons of wood chips per year. Art couldn’t predict whether there is enough harvestable wood in the immediate area – particularly since there are other biomass facilities in the region, including a second Beaver Wood proposal in Fair Haven — to support demand for the Pownal facility.
“So will there be enough wood?” Art asked. “I don’t know. We need more information.”
Small facilities may be acceptable, Art said. “It all depends on how the material is collected,” he said. “Biomass can be done correctly or it can be a disaster,” he said.
Dethier questioned whether there would be enough water available from a well on the site and the Hoosic River to produce 500,000 gallons of water a day for the plant.
“Someone should think about that hot water going back into the river,” he said.
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