Town of
Hopkinton, NH
Board of Selectmen
Dear
Gentlemen,
As a close
neighbor to the Bio Energy plant, I am
very concerned and very much against the
recent proposal to build a 30 to 34
megawatt power plant at the current Bio
Energy site.
As you
know, this site is located in a
residential area surrounded by homes,
farmland, and a recreational park. It
is located in a valley which provides a
wonderful view for the tourist traffic
on I89 and contains covered bridge #9
which is also a popular tourist stop.
It is so close to the Contoocook River
(a NH Protected River) that the original
plant required a zoning variance to run.
As I
understand it, Bio Energy expects that
the emission of particulates (containing
many toxins) will be at least as high as
those emitted when the original plant
was in operation. As a neighbor I would
like you to know that when the original
plant was in operation, our homes,
decks, vehicles, plants and lawns were
often covered in the “soot” that was
belched out of the smokestacks. We
believe this to be the cause of our
daughter’s chronic cough which began
when she was a baby and continued until
the plant closed. When she read the
article in the Concord Monitor the other
day, her reaction was “Mom, I don’t want
my cough to come back.”
When the
original plant was open, we were often
awakened in the early morning hours by a
loud roaring noise which I believe to
have been steam being released. It was
so loud that it would jolt us out of
bed. We quickly got in the habit of
leaving our front windows closed…not
what you expect in a rural setting.
Currently
the school buses are parked near the
plant. When they start up in the
morning, we can hear the engines and
sometimes even the drivers talking from
across the river. The idea of 40 to 50
trucks daily rumbling down 127 and
dumping their load is very frightening.
I am not only concerned about the noise
but about the potential accidents that
could happen on the bad corner by the
covered bridge. When a truck takes that
corner, it takes up both lanes and
anyone coming from the opposite
direction cannot see it coming. I have
seen a few close calls with the current
traffic volume!
I
understand that we have a very difficult
property tax situation in this town, but
I don’t believe that this potential tax
revenue source is one that will benefit
our community or solve our tax issue. A
small drop in our property taxes is not
worth the health of our residents.
I
understand that we need to promote
renewable energy in our state. There
are several energy sources that do not
have toxic emissions! The combustion
of “clean” wood is not one of them. I
believe that Bio Energy’s strategy is to
make us appear “NIMBY”, especially since
the Governor is a supporter of the
Renewable Energy Portfolio and lives in
our town. But I don’t believe that a
power plant that generates energy via
combustion should be in anyone’s
neighborhood. Even with the Best
Available Technology, toxins will still
be emitted into our air.
As I
understand it, Bio Energy does not want
to proceed without community approval.
Please indicate to them that we do not
desire to see a business that emits
toxins built in our residential
neighborhood.
Thank you
for your support and dedication of time
to our town, and thank you for
listening!
Best
Regards,
Sue Allen
Contoocook
*********************************************************************
February
10, 2008
Dear Hopkinton Board of Selectman:
I appreciate your invitation for
citizens to weigh in on Bio Energy's
plan to build a 30+ megawatt power plant
in West Hopkinton. As a member of the
Board of Directors for REACH, my name is
included on the letter sent to you last
week that outlines a host of reasons why
such a plant would not be in the best
interest of our community. However, I
also would like to share my personal
reasons for not wanting a smokestack
industry in Hopkinton.
I have lived in New Hampshire for more
than 30 years and for the past 22 years
in Contoocook Village. After my husband
and our family moved to Contoocook in
1986 I developed asthma. I am a
nonsmoker and prior to moving here,
never had any respiratory problems. I
wondered why someone in her late 40s
would suddenly develop asthma. Then in
2002 my asthma attacks stopped. It took
me a while to connect the dots, but I
now believe I know why I developed
asthma after moving to Contoocook and
why I haven’t had an asthma attack in
nearly six years. My compromised health
is just one example of the collateral
damage that results when a community
hosts a polluting industry. In 2002,
Public Service of New Hampshire bought
out Bio Energy's contract and the plant
in West Hopkinton shut down its
smokestack, The quality of air in our
community significantly improved and I
no longer needed an inhaler. I could
breathe again.
If you do not have asthma it is
difficult to appreciate how terrifying
it is to not be able to get enough
air. In your deliberations about this
and other matters that come before our
town, I respectfully ask that you make
decisions that will safeguard our
natural environment and protect the
health of our community. I understand
that these are tight economic times,
however, no amount of increased tax
revenue is worth putting our citizens
at risk.
Sincerely yours,
Susan Covert
Contoocook, NH
*******************************************************************************
Office of
the Selectmen
Town of Hopkinton
Hopkinton, NH 03229
Henniker,
February 14, 2008
Dear
Hopkinton Selectmen,
We, several
of the residents on Highland Drive in
Henniker – adjacent to the Hopkinton
Town Line, are writing to urge you to
reconsider your support of a Bio Energy
plant becoming operational again. Our
reasons for asking you to rule against
the plant are many:
1. Our
two schools, Henniker Community School
and John Stark Regional High School, are
both in the fallout zone for any toxins
produced by the plant.
2. A
Harvard study has shown that there are
at least 200 industrial toxins that can
damage a developing brain. This is not
something we want to risk our children
being exposed to.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2006-releases/press11072006.html
We would like to know what toxins Bio
Energy will be emitting into the air we
breathe before the plant is operational.
If any of the toxins mentioned in the
study are going to be present in the air
when the plant is operational, what
assurance will the Town of Hopkinton be
able to give us that we will be safe in
the short and long-term? If there are
other options besides an energy plant,
why would the Town of Hopkinton expose
your residents and neighbors to these
dangers and expose the Town to the
potential liability that would come with
releasing toxins into the surrounding
communities?
3. Many
of our residents enjoy the Elm Brook
recreational area, and would not like to
find it sullied by soot from this
facility.
4. We
understand that some of the neighbors
around the plant suffered from asthma
and other respiratory illnesses during
the time the Bio Energy plant was last
operating. (See letters sent to you by
Sue Allen and Susan Covert, both of
Contoocook.) What research have you, the
Selectmen, done to discover and
understand the extent of respiratory
illness in the area and the impact Bio
Energy will have on that?
5. Many
of us have to travel along “death
alley”, route 202 past the Golden
Pineapple, to go to work, where we would
encounter a many-fold increase in truck
traffic heading to the plant with raw
material should this plant start up,
potentially increasing the road
accidents in that area. Many of us also
travel the route past the plant, the
corner of which is a very bad place for
accidents. These accidents would more
than likely also multiply with the
increased truck traffic.
6. The
company management has a proven track
record of contempt for the systems
designed to protect the public. They
have falsified information on
applications (failing to disclose
felonies)
http://www.leadfreeordie.com/PDFs/AmendedComplaintbyState.pdf
and flaunted regulations (burning C&D
without permission)
http://www.leadfreeordie.com/PDFs/Bio%20Energy%20Burns%20Lead%20Painted%20Wood%20with%20attachments.pdf
In
claiming that emissions cannot be
properly determined before the plant is
up and running, our concern is that they
are demonstrating the same willingness
to use misdirection and misinformation
to achieve their aims as in previous
years. Why would a project where the
pollution factor has not been disclosed,
and that clearly could have an impact on
our environment, be approved at all? If
Bio Energy can’t determine what the
emissions will be then, in our opinion,
it seems to be irresponsible to approve
their project.
It would
seem that other energy producers have no
problem disclosing what their emissions
will contain:
http://www.russellbiomass.com/impacts/airimpacts/
7. What
assurances can the Town of Hopkinton
give us that runoff from the fly ash
isn’t going to leach into the nearby
Contoocook river polluting it and
impacting the local ecology?
8. Increasing
the height of the smokestack surely will
not solve the pollution problems.
Wouldn’t it stand to reason that it will
merely spread the problem over a larger
area thereby impacting a larger
population? What research have the
Selectmen done to look into this issue?
We
certainly understand the need for
revenue to run a town; Henniker has,
after all, one of the highest property
tax rates in the state so we certainly
know what it is like to have a high tax
rate, but we question whether it is
worth jeopardizing the health of not
only Hopkinton and Contoocook residents,
but also residents in neighboring towns,
for a potential tax revenue of $300,000.
We have
read about the alternatives that REACH
have suggested for the plant, and we
hope that you will consider them
seriously, as we hope that you will
consider the wishes of your community.
Many of us here in Henniker took part in
the 2004 rally against Bio Energy down
at the covered bridge, and we watched
the Hopkinton community come out to vote
against Bio Energy back in 2005. Surely,
since Bio Energy claims to respect the
wishes of the community, the discussion
to start operating the plant again
should really be a moot point?
Sincerely,
Mr. & Mrs. Denham, Mr. & Mrs. MacMurphy,
Mr. & Mrs Childers, Ms. Callner, Mr.
Parnell, Mr. & Mrs. Nixa, Mr. & Mrs.
Nee, Mr. & Mrs. Gillespie, Mr. & Mrs.
Baum, Mr. & Mrs. Nee, Mr. & Mrs. Seaver,
Mr. & Mrs. Twombly, Mr. & Mrs. Beeso
