Guess it doesn't matter much to anyone how the good people of Winchester feel. In case you missed the article in tonight's paper....
Concord-based Clean Power Development LLC is moving forward with plans to build a wood-fueled biomass power plant near Route 119 in Winchester.
Winchester residents will have a chance next week to hear more about the proposed 20-megawatt power plant during a public information session.
Clean Power Development announced an interest in building a plant in Winchester in 2008.
Since then, company officials have focused on building a 29-megawatt plant in Berlin, said Project Manager Bill Gabler at Wednesday’s selectmen’s meeting.
Last month, the company inked a deal with Gestamp Biomass, a division of a Spanish energy corporation, that provided it with the money to begin moving ahead with the Winchester project, Gabler said.
Officials say they don’t know how much the plant will cost.
Company officials hope to begin work on the plant, which would burn wood chips to generate energy, by the end of the year, Gabler said.
Company officials plan to buy about 35 acres south of downtown for the plant, which has been scaled back since it was initially proposed as a 40-megawatt plant.
Testing by the state environmental department showed that the nearby Ashuelot River, which would be used to help cool the plant, couldn’t support such a large plant, Gabler said.
At Wednesday’s selectmen’s meeting, Gabler asked selectmen what role they want the town to have in the permitting process.
Because of its size, the project can either go through the town planning board’s site plan review process or a permitting process by the N.H. Department of Environmental Services’ Energy Site Evaluation Committee, Gabler told the five selectmen and about 30 residents.
According to state regulations, plants that produce 5 megawatts or less have to go to the town and those that produce 30 megawatts or more go through the state committee.
At 20 megawatts, the proposed Winchester plant falls in between, so the project would only go to the state if town or company officials petition for that.
Clean Power Development officials would like the project to go to the town’s planning board because that course would be faster, cheaper and would allow the company to begin building a relationship with the community, Gabler said.
Selectman Gustave A. Ruth moved that the board agree to decide on which direction to send the company at next week’s meeting, but without a second from other board members, it never went to a vote.
“I get the feeling that most people in this room would like to have local control, not leave it up to (state officials in) Concord to decide what happens here in Winchester,” Ruth said.
But some board members said they wanted to hear more about the proposed project before they make that call.
“I’m getting the sense that people want to know more about this,” said Selectman Roberta Fraser. “It has been two years since we heard anything.”The board voted to request that Gabler host a public information session about the project next Wednesday following the selectmen’s meeting. It is unclear whether the board will make a final decision next week.
The public information session is scheduled for Aug. 18, immediately following the selectmen’s meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. It will be held at the town hall.
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33 comments:
Kudos to Roberta for standing up to "the boys in the band". She is absolutely correct that we need more information. Greenfield blew this idea out of the water. After all there is no guarantee that PSNH will buy the power or for that matter will even allow this plant to "wheel" the power over their lines so that it can be sold to the grid. That people is a fact. Ask the voters of Springfield, VT who voted for a hydro and ended up with millions of dollars of debt that they are still paying on 30 years later. Yep, sounds too good to be true. Best you hold onto your underwear as you may not have your skivvies on when you leave the meeting.
That said the only ones that will make money are the attorneys and the person that owns the land. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody always pays and it should not be Winchester. We have not recovered from the tannery.
Have a nice day!
Let's do all the research we can before next week. Make our voices heard loud and clear. If Greenfield and other MA towns kept dirty bio mass out, we can too. Let's show Clean Power that there are intelligent people in Winchester who won't be run over by rich entrepreurs who think they can do what they want and use our town, our air, our river , etc; make their $$$$$$ and run. We are more than Margaret and her behind the scene deals. And by the way, the state is not thrilled with Clean Power. There are ways to make thme jump through higher hoops with the state than they are trying to get away with now.
It was my understanding Greenfield was asked to allow a “trash to energy plant” not wood burning plant like what they are proposing for Winchester to generate electricity. We will get the plant no matter what the Clam Shell Alliance wants. The public service will be made to buy the electricity by NH Rsa‘s, so stop crying, the sky is falling Ms. Chicken Little.
I do not care if they put a nuke plant down their if it save me tax dollars. Look around the town is screwed by people you voted in. If it makes noise, makes dirt, dust, traffic and it’s a junk yard Winchester selectmen and planning board allow it.
Winchester, the cesspool of New Hampshire. All we attract is trash recyclers, smelly businesses and hazardous waste plants. Way to go BOS, how much are you all getting out of this idea?
Thanks to John Gamarlo & Maggie - as of tonight we have a Clean Power Plant. Coming Soon to your neighborhood (not theirs)!!!!!!!!!!!
You can attack the BOS all you want, they are just looking out for what's best for themselves, I mean the citizens.
You voted for them now live with it!
John and Maggie will be compensated one way or another, you can bet on that. It will be interesting to see who's friends and relatives get the jobs.Well we should have a town full of happy loggers, that's a good thing. Hope the plant remembers that the important people in this town only work 3 and 4 days a week.
One of the anonymous posters here speaks to the sale of power and wheeling the output.
To the first point - where the poster states that there is no guarantee that PSNH will buy the power. That is incorrect.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has already ruled that PSNH will have to buy the output of the Winchester plant in their order QM10-4.
The poster then seems to allege that PSNH will not wheel the power. That also is incorrect. Federal law requires PSNH to wheel the power over their lines insofar as the lines have the physical ability to carry the power. As I said at the meeting(s), the studies proving the ability of the existing power lines are complete and show that there is sufficient capacity. So, PSNH will absolutely be required to wheel the power.
Another of the Anonymous posters alleges that the state is not thriled with Clean Power. So that I can reach out to that agency and find out what the problem is, would the poster please identify who/what agency in the state is not happy with our company and what the issue might be?
Thank you
Finally, to "Happy Loggers", if you are implying that Clean Power will in some way compensate anyone for their support of our project, that is not true. Clean Power has not, and will not, take such actions. The important people in Winchester are those who work every day to help improve their situation and that of others. We want to be a part of that by bringing jobs and economic development to town. If there is anything that we are not doing well, please let me know
Bill Gabler
224-4053
bill@cleanpowerdevelopment.us
I've been reading about lots of negatives in regards to this biomass junk, tell me Bill, what are the benefits, who benefits most and why did you come here to Winchester?
I heard you say Wednesday night that only 35 trucks per day will be coming to town; yet you say you'll hire 100 loggers, what are 65 loggers gonna do if they can't haul their logs to your plant daily?
You also stated that 20-25 jobs will be created. How many of those jobs are for lay folk, the common everyday man or woman with no technical skills?
Another question I have is from where and besides tree tops and dead wood what else will these trucks coming into our town be hauling?
First, Family Man, to be clear, it will be only clean "virgin" wood chips, no junk. What will be brought into town and burned is the tops, limbs and weed trees, left over from a timber harvest.
Why did we come to Winchester? Because Winchester is at the geographic center of the largest untapped wood basket in the region. So, the availability of fuel was the primary reason. Then, the proximity of available water, land, transmission lines, and work force were additional factors in the selection of this site.
Regarding loggers. Please remember, we don't hire loggers or have anything to do with loggin operations. We buy their product. The estimate of up to 100 foresters, loggers and truckers includes a range of workers. Clearly there are a variety of workers involved beyond the truck drivers. Perhaps the easiest way to look at it is to remember that we will be paying these fuel providers between $6 and $8 million annually for fuel. That money will employ a numbe of workers. Who, by the way, will then spend that money in the region and employ still more.
How many of the jobs will be for people with no technical skills? Most of them. The only jobs that require special degrees or technical skills would be jobs such as the Plant Manager, Plant Engineer and perhaps a couple of others. There will be jobs for office assistance, loader operators, shift workers to run the boiler, electricians, and many "average" individuals.
I said earlier, the trucks will only be hauling biomass from tops, limbs, and weed trees.
Finally, the question that is virtually unanswerable in this formt, but I will acknowledge is the one of - "what are the benefits and who benefits the most?"
What I'd like to do is to host an open question evening in Winchester, where we might have the time to get into all of the aspects of that question, because there is just not a way to fully answer it here.
Bill
We like our trees Bill, our forests bring a natural ambiance to this area of Southern NH,they also provide shelter and food for our wildlife that relies on them for their survival. Your plant will do nothing for us but destroy our forests, make our mountains an eyesore and contribute to green house gasses and other toxic air pollutants, not to mention all of the erosion problems associated with clear cutting.
I don't think any of us is willing to trade 20 jobs for the wanton destruction of the beauty of our forests so that a very few people like yourself will benefit from a plant that will provide no energy or services of any kind for the majority of the residents of Winchester.
You came here because we are a poor town with no viable business and because someone in a very small minded group of people contacted you. Let's be frank here Bill, your plant will do the majority of us more harm than good and only you, your investors and the few people involved in this fiasco will reap the benefits.
You claim that trucks hauling biomass will only come from tops, limbs, and weed trees. How about construction and demolition debris? Are we to believe that once there becomes a shortage of natural fuel you won't turn to other sources to keep the plant going like others do? We all know that demolition waste is comprised of plastics, pressure treated wood, painted wood, composite plywood sealed with glue, etc. and is full of arsenic and lead which will be released into the air. Will you or your investors accept full responsibility for the health issues this plant will cause? I don't think so; nor do I believe for one moment that you'll only burn tree tops and weeds and tree limbs. You continue to respond with more propaganda and dodge giving complete answers here. Why, we are giving you all the space to answer questions that you need? And there'll be no outbursts or arguments, no shouting or screaming from one side or the other, just written word, plain and simple.
This plant seems like an easy fix to our town's tax base problems; but it comes at a very serious price, the health of the citizens of Winchester.
Mr. Gabler
If anyone tells you that you don't have to listen to the likes of people who post on this site, this time they would be dead wrong. There have been issues on here that represented a small minority in the past but in this case, you are hearing the majority and we are working together and we will not back down. Thanks Informer for your hard work on this issue.
Dear Informer
No one from Winchester contacted us. There was no small group, there was no contact of any kind. We did our research on biomass availability and selected Winchester unilaterally.
Next, regarding your allegation that we will bring in and burn C&D. That is absolutely 100% incorrect. For one thing, our air permit, once we file it, will specifiy exactly what we are allowed to burn and I can absolutely guarantee you that it will not include C&D debris. Secondly, there is a state law prohibiting the incineration of C&D debris in the state of NH.
Any mention of the possibility of burning anything other than 100% virgin wood chips is pure hyperbole and incorrect.
That is not propaganda, it is a fact.
Finally, you accuse me of not giving complete answers and dodging questions. What question would you like a more complete answer for? I'd be happy to elucidate on whatever issue you felt I cut short on.
That is not propaganda
I simply asked if the plant would also burn C&D byproducts and what you would rely on for fuel once our forests had been stripped. I also asked if the plant would accept responsibility for all of the health issues that would undoubtedly rise from having this plant in such close proximity to our downtown area, our school and day care facilities. Forgive my suspicions of why you chose our town especially right after our BOS suddenly decided that now was the time to upgrade our WWT plant and add a number of extras not needed to our tax burden.
How many tons of virgin forest products will this plant burn in one hour? How many tons a day?
Exactly what percentage of energy will you supply to the grid? How many KWs will be generated by burning up our forests?
What benefits will this plant bring to the people of Winchester and please don't quote me that you'll be paying your suppliers between $6 - $8 million annually, what benefits our town and it's general population allowing you to come here and strip our forests, pollute our air and water and increase our road traffic. It seems to many of us that only a very small group of people will actually gain anything, the loggers who will now clear cut timber in order to make more money, several people from town who may be hired to work at the plant and of course the person or persons involved in selling you the land on which you will build your plant. What's in it for the rest of us to offset all of the health risks?
If you're paying out $6 to $8 mil annually to loggers for fuel, you sure as hell stand to make one hell of a profit for cutting down NH forests for the small amount of power this plant will generate. Seems you and your investrors will be benifitting the most at our expense. Like the Informer asked, what is in this for us the general population? Why should we allow this with all of the health issues involved?
You say you did your studies and Winchester is at the center of the largest untapped "wood basket" in the area. Is that how you feel about the environment,just a wood basket for your furnaces to make money for you and your investing firms? You care nothing for us, our town or our natural resources,all you see is dollar signs as you rape and pillage our forests and release toxins into the air at ground level. Go away, take your plant, your investors and just go away. We don't want you and we will not allow you to come here and destroy the beauty of our mountains and forests and pollute all for the sake of the mighty greenback.
Why does Winchester have such a hard time when industries want to come to town that will create jobs and add to our tax base, thereby lowering our taxes. 1 more job in town is better than 0. There are restrictions on what can be burnt at the plant and there are emission controls that keep carbon emissions low. If you want to see this community grow, you have to allow it and stop closing the door in the faces of business owners. Trees will be cut down and as far as I know that should be up to the landowner to do what they want with the trees on their property as long as they are within the law. Trees are not only going to come from Winchester. If a new business wants to invest millions of dollars, that is up to them. If their busniess doesn't work, how it that our problem. This is the United States after all, isn't it. I for one want to see more business move into our community instead of shutting the door in their face. Winchester was built on industry along our rivers, I think we should once again start looking for more industry for this town. I want to see jobs here, to help give our area a better economy. I think they should be given a chance and see what they can do for this community, everyone knows we need it.
Yes, Trevor, it would be nice to have some businesses come to Winchester and provide jobs and tax relief; but at what cost? It would have been nice to have a Wal-Mart ( Hinsdale ) or a Market Basket ( Swanzey ) or some high tech businesses ( Troy )however until we get people in office who think more about the town than themselves and their friends, this just isn't going to happen.. ever. Our town leaders have stagnated, their ideas are out of touch and all we can attract are businesses like Triple T and this newest one Clean Power, that will offset any good they would do with health issues and a very few jobs.
There are a lot more pollutants than just carbon, Trevor, guess you don't read too well. Would you put your child, your health or someone else's at risk for the sake of a few jobs? There are also restrictions placed on mining and oil companies too, have you read the papers or watched the news lately? Those with large sums of capital reserves rarely give a hoot about anyone but themselves. Clean Power says it's here because Winchester is the center of the wood basket. They know a small cash strapped town like Winchester will welcome them with open arms despite the negative impact on the community. We do not ask how decisions made today will affect generations to come; but we surely should take that into consideration for it's our children and their children that will be effected most by what we decide now.
Many towns in the past allowed any and all types of businesses to come in and do their thing, owners were expected to follow the laws, to respect the people of the community and to ensure what they did was not hazardous to the people. Need I remind of Nyanza, The Love Canal or anyone of the hundreds of toxic sites of the past? Do I need to remind you why the "Super Fund" was created or the AC Lawrence Fund for that matter? Are we that desperate for tax dollars that we will allow a business that dispels toxic matter into the air and our ground water for the sake of a few dollars of tax relief? Shall we risk our health and the health of the towns children for a few jobs?
There are two sides to every story, don't just take the easy way out and believe everything you hear or read, do some research on your own, ask questions and look at the whole picture. These contractors and plant officials know that anything under 30MegaWatts slips under the radar of the SEC ( The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee). The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee normally reviews projects 30 megawatts and larger; the CPD proposal is for a 20
megawatt plant, ask them why. If Winchester is at the center of this so-called wood basket, why not build a bigger plant, employ more people and infuse more money into the local economy? They did the exact same thing up in Berlin, 29 MWs, just under the limit for SEC to get involved. Does that tell you something Trevor? The measly output will make them money but won't benefit anyone else at all. By doing this they avoid real scrutiny and can be dealt with on a town level instead of having to jump through state hoops, it's easier and cost less and they only have to convince a small amount of people to get approval.
I have nothing against industry or business or anyone making a buck; but just not at the risk of my health, my families or my neighbors.
Mr. Informer I have to disagree with you, your missing what Trevor had to say. You and a few of the anonymous posters (and I think it is just one or two) with their "sky is falling” attitude do not have the opinion of everyone. Trevor is a knowledgeable person who knows we need jobs and a commercial tax base to survive as a town. Lets listen to what the project investors have to say and invite them in as friends to our town to invest in and be partners to help us with a commercial tax base.
Your assumptions the biomass will rape the land and pollute the air is far fetched. Look at old pictures the way this area was in the 1900 stripped of every tree to make farming land.
What your advocating is just what the left-wing pot smoking duds used against the Seabrook Nuke Plant and no one has died. The state could now have a second reactor making electricity at Seabrook and we wouldn’t need this plant. No instead your kind fought them all the way until it became un-cost effective.
If you want to worry about something, worry about all the pollution going on top of our aquifer.
We need a growing market for forest biomass to practice great forestry. There's enough junk wood out there to supply hundreds of megawatts of power as well as wood pellet manufacturers and firewood users.
Seeing is believing so if anyone is interested you can check out any of my biomass improvement cuttings. Landowners love the way their woodlots look after the operation is done.
Clean Power sounds like a great company. If Winchester doesn't want you Bill, come on down to our backyard in Athol or Orange!
Actually, the reason Bill said that they are building the smaller plant - is because that is what the STATE said is ALL that our Ashuelot River can sustain...in a "low season" Otherwise it would be bigger!
Do you believe everything someone tells you? Did you bother to check or are you just willing to take someone's word for such an important decision concerning us all? These people will say and do anything to make the millions they'll rake in at others expense, it's a time proven thing over and over again, just look at the past history of Winchester if you need proof.
Well, I'll try to post again . . . as I see what I submitted earlier today did not get in.
To the informer
The fact that the wood chips will be "virgin chips" means that they will be clean, unadulterated, untreated chips, not that they will come from a virgin forest. I see that an anonymous poster thought the same thing - - so I want to be clear on that.
As to how many tons - I'm estimating around 250,000 tons per year, which works out to about 685 tons per day or about 29 tons per hour.
It will be a 20 MW plant. As to what percentage of the grid it will be when it comes on, I do not know.
Then, I absolutely agree with your statement that "There are two sides to every story, don't just take the easy way out and believe everything you hear or read, do some research on your own, ask questions and look at the whole picture." It is very much my hope/desire that people will seriously consider both side of the discussion and that the discussion will be open and factual, rather than opinion based.
BIll Gabler
Posts are moderated because we have had problems in the past with a few individuals posting inappropriate content and using vulgar language. If you submit a post that follows the few simple rules we have required it will turn up when one of us logs on and checks; usually within an hour or two. We have lives too
Here's some factual information I've come across today regarding proposed biomass plants in our area of western Mass.
Current proposals for building 5 biomass plants would:
• Target public forests to provide 532,000 green tons of wood annually, requiring clear-cutting
6,200 acres, or partially cutting between 11,000 and 31,000 acres each year.
Historical 1980-2006 public land logging averaged 1,250 acres partially cut. See: www.maforests.org
• Target all forests to provide 1,900,000 green tons of trees annually, or 8.6 million trees. Forest cutting rates would more than triple on public and private forests. At this rate, all western and central MA forests could be logged in 16 years, or 9 years if protected areas are excluded. Heavy
logging, including clearcutting, would become common.
See: www.maforests.org/Impacts.htlm
• Burn 2,500,000 green tons of wood and release 2,500,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, causing a 10% increase over current statewide power plant CO2 emissions. Biomass power
plants release 50% more CO2 per MWhr than coal and 150% more than gas. These biomass power plants are not carbon neutral despite such claims by proponents and the media.
• Increase air and water pollution in already polluted regions of Massachusetts. Ash from these
biomass power plants often contains lead and arsenic and is spread on farms as fertilizer.
• Require about 650 logging truck trips per day, or 200,000 trips per year, at about 5 miles per
gallon for trips up to 100 miles, mostly on narrow rural roads and burn 5,000,000 gallons of
diesel annually for cutting, chipping and trucking the wood.
• New power produced from these 5 plants would only increase generation capacity 1% more
than today’s capacity.
Achievable conservation measures could reduce electrical use 30%.
Conservation measures cost 3 cents per kWhr versus 9 cents per kWhr for new production.
Not the rosy picture you folks are being fed. Your plant will result in more pollution for you folks, more clear cutting of your forests and lots of heavy log trucks traveling down your main streets all day long increasing noise and wear and tear on your roads you will have to pay for and for what, a tiny increase in electricity generated to your grid. Don't let these smooth talking pitchmen win you over or you'll be sorry you ever heard the word biomass. Oh, and their claims that the are only going to burn clean wood, don't believe a word of it, their application will state biomass on it and they'll burn whatever the law allows them once they get started and they'll claim they are within the law. Good luck in your fight against these intruders, send them packing if you can. Oh and one more thing, do a search on biomass and see for yourselves why they should not be allowed to operate at all.
Does anyone remember when MARKETBASKET wanted to come to our town? It was some years ago. What happened then? We were an ideal location being in the corner of three states for customers. Look at what Swanzey has. And now Hinsdale, with a Super Walmart being built. Why can't we attract such businesses and not the controversial types we seem to be getting - dirty, noisy and polluting..
Perhaps the old adage need be said here..."will the last person leaving Winchester please put out the lights.
After reading the above post, a good question comes to mind. Mr. Gabler mentioned that our forests could sustain a larger plant, but that the river is used for cooling the towers and was not capable of allowing a larger plant.
What people aren't taking into consideration is how many plants can our forests handle? If there are several in our state and several in Massachusetts - at what point do we say enough is enough?
I read where it was estimated that it would take 9-12 years for all of the forest in western Massachusetts to be depleted, how long before all of our forests are gone if those plants in Massachusetts start hiring loggers from up here to supply their plants. How long before the forests will grow and replenish the supply, 50-60 years? What do they burn in the meantime? How does this affect those who sell and others who buy firewood and other wood products? What's the real cost of these types of plants on local economy and people as a whole? Do you still think this is such a really good idea?
How many of you heat with wood? Just consider how much it will cost to buy a cord of wood....
What will happen to the guys making pallets? How much will their wood cost to produce them.
Don't kid yourself - this will have a serious impact on our forests and environment and economy. The only ones benefitting are the loggers and the power plant.
For those asking, no Mr. Gabler did not submit any comments to anything published on the blog yesterday,nor we did edit, delete, refuse to publish or hinder and commenter in any way.
Keep up the good work Informer. Your site has gained my support in providing a wealth of information on this issue!!!!!
Maybe we are actually getting to Mr. Gabler and making him step back and realize, we know more than he thinks and have done research on wood burning energy and the facts about he and his partners and how they are received wherever they go. Everyone has their number........ except some in power in our town hall. Notice that the only ones in favor are anyone who stand to gain financially without thoughts to the consequences to the rest of us. We need businesses that pay taxes; like the ones that have approached the town and have been turned down because someone in the "in crowd" might lose money. I just read where Peter Bloomfield of CPD and Concord Steam was quoted as saying they have to make their move while they can get the tax breaks. They are not the most popular kids on the block for sure in their field.
Since Mr. Gabler is not replying to my other posts - did anyone attend the presentation and learn in what form do they accept the wood? In logs, chips or both? And how did they propose to store it on the property?
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