The Villager 10/8/04
(with kind permission from the Villager)
| Mothers Join BioEnergy Battle by David Hayden |
| A group calling themselves Concord Mothers has petitioned the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Servies (NHDES) to "demand that DES prohibit the BioEnergy LLC and Regenesis Corp. hazardous waste incinerator from emitting 64 tons of these 87 hazardous industrial toxins and allowing these toxins to fall into Concord's drinking water." |
| If the current permit for burning construction debris in West Hopkinton is upheld, Bio Energy will be permitted to burn as much as 2.67 tons of lead annually and an unlimited amount of mercury. The Title V permit states that 31 pounds of mercury are expected to burn each year. |
| The petition sites DES mapping and modeling to show that, "much of the toxins permitted for emission... will fall in the immediate vicinity of the incinerator itself, which is located in the midst of wetlands...serving as tributaries to the Contoocook River, and immediately adjacent to the river itself." |
| They "further intend to discharge industrial by product and/or leachate from the hazardous waste solid waste pile directly into an unnamed tributary of the Contoocook River.. thereby making the facility subject to the requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program." |
| "It would be a violation of the Clean Water Act to discharge into the Contoocook River literally tons of the 87 different hazardous toxins." |
| Concord Mothers go on to say "Petitioners believe with certainty that the public water supply of Concord and other communities is in danger of contamination.. and the local regulations are not sufficient or effective to prevent such pollution." |
| Penacook Pond is Concord's primary watersource, and DES regulations are in place to prohibit any "condition or practice of whatever kind that may endanger the purity of the waters of said pond or tributaries." |
| Although the Contoocook River does not contain the same DES regulations, the City of Concord does draw drinking water from a pumping station on the river, and it is already classified as "impaired water" under the Clean Water Act for exceeding the Maximum Daily Load for lead, zinc and other metals. |
| Currently the Town of
Hopkinton is in New Hampshire Superior Court attempting to
enforce its regulations to have a business go to the Zoning
Board before a change of use. So far the town's Cease and Desist
order has been thrown out because the court ruled the town does
not have jurisdiction after the NHDES preempted them.... |
| Objectivity Difficult in Face of Injustice by David Hayden |
| I feel it is important to notify readers of a difficult decision I have recently made as a reporter. In the case of BioEnergy's permit to burn construction debris containing lead mercury and 85 other harmful materials in Hopkinton, I have decided that to be impartial is to be un-objective. Bio Energy and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NDHES) have crossed a line of reason and good faith, and I feel it is my duty to use my voice to call an injustice what it is. |
| At present, the town of Hopkinton is in Superior Court attempting to have a cease and desist order upheld, because BioEnergy refused to go to the town's zoning board but was granted permission to burn by the NHDES anyway. Selectman Don Lane thinks BioEnergy learned a valuable lesson when they brought plans for a plant to pelletize sludge to the zoning board. When hundreds of residents showed up to express their disapproval BioEnergy walked away and said "Never again." |
| According to representatives from REACH (Resident Environmental Action Committee for Health), the application had several problems that should have made it incomplete. The owners of BioEnergy only notified themselves as abutters, they said no wetlands study was needed because they claim to be a power plant rather than a solid waste disposal facility, and they chose not to check the box asking whether they had received all town permits. (There are more issues too, but more complicated than I can write in this essay). NHDES did not follow up on any of these things to find out if they were true, and at this time appear to be nothing more than paper filers. |
| The courts have thus far ruled that Hopkinton does not have jurisdiction because NHDES preempted them, and excuses for NHDES granting permits with incomplete and faulty applications is that they are understaffed. There is something terribly wrong with granting such authority to a government organization, and then underfunding them to the point of incompetence. |
| Aaron Lavallee, a candidate for the House of Representatives in Henniker, correctly points to this issue of local control as critical for the future of our towns. We see Tamworth being told they can't prevent a racetrack, Sunappee can't control he development of their hillsides, a town can't control the amount of groundwater taken for skiing, and Hopkinton can't control the amount of pollutants released into the air, soil and water. |
| A group of women from Concord filed a petition with the NHDES this week pointing out that the Contoocook River feeds the City of Concord's water supply. NHDES's own rules state they are charged with not allowing water sources to become contaminated. Granting the permit without taking drinking water concerns into consideration means NHDES neglected their charter, and the group requests NHDES review their actions immediately. |
| The state of Massachusetts has
recently banned the disposal of construction debris. If the
state of New Hampshire accepts, we will be the dumping ground
for New England, and the Concord Monitor and Boston Globe have
identified eight facilities in New Hampshire waiting to see what
happens in Hopkinton. NHDES considers the fallout from
smokestacks to be a five mile radius. In those five miles is
10,000 people, 2448 acres of lakes and wetland, seven schools
(Hopkinton High, Maple Street, Harold Martin, Hopkinton
Independent, Henniker Community, John Stark and New England
College), Elm Brook Park, Dustin's Golf Course, portion or all
of Hopkinton, Henniker, Warner, Webster, Weare and Dunbarton, my
house with it's big backyard full of gardens just one and a half
miles away, and my family's business inviting people to stop for
23 years less than a mile away. Like in the movie Network, it makes me want to lean out my window and scream into the night "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anyore!" Instead I do what we all can do: stay informed, tell others, write to elected officials, put signs on my lawn, attend meetings and court dates, and remind myself every day that it is not a selfish act to stand against this. |