End of the Road for Greenfield, MA Biomass Incinerator

END OF THE ROAD FOR GREENFIELD BIOMASS PROJECT

Con­tact: Janet Sin­clair 413–625-2886 / 413–478-4333

Con­cerned Cit­i­zens of Franklin Coun­ty Green­field, MA

July 18, 2013 

The plain­tiffs appeal­ing the Green­field, MA Zon­ing Board deci­sion to grant a Spe­cial Per­mit for a 47 Megawatt bio­mass pow­er plant filed a request in the Franklin Supe­ri­or Court to annul the per­mit. The request for the Final Judg­ment came after Cam­bridge, MA based Matthew Wolfe of Pio­neer Renew­able Ener­gy allowed a July 16, 2013 dead­line to pass.  The plain­tiffs and the devel­op­er had agreed that if an amend­ed per­mit was not sub­mit­ted to the Green­field Plan­ning Board by the dead­line, the per­mit would be annulled. 

The per­mit was issued in July 22, 2009. 450 peo­ple attend­ed the per­mit hear­ings. Most who spoke were against the project, express­ing con­cerns includ­ing ques­tions about the wood sup­ply and neg­a­tive health and envi­ron­men­tal impacts. 

The project would have burned 600,000 tons of wood each year at the Indus­tri­al Park in north Green­field. The Zon­ing Board unan­i­mous­ly to approved the plan.

The need for an amend­ed per­mit result­ed from a cit­i­zen appeal of a Town Coun­cil deci­sion to sell waste water to cool the pow­er plant. Mr. Wolfe with­drew that part of his plan just weeks before the June 2010 vote, declar­ing the vote a moot point, but the vot­ers decid­ed by an 84% mar­gin to over­turn the Town Coun­cil decision.

The zon­ing appeal lan­guished in the court while all sides agreed to wait for the new Mass­a­chu­setts bio­mass reg­u­la­tions to become final­ized. Those reg­u­la­tions were issued in August, 2012, and placed stricter stan­dards for bio­mass pow­er gen­er­a­tors to receive state sub­si­dies. In March, 2013, all par­ties in the law­suit agreed on the July date for the devel­op­er to final­ize his plans with the town with an amend­ed per­mit using dry cool­ing, or the per­mit would be annulled.

Vol­un­teer group Con­cerned Cit­i­zens of Franklin Coun­ty along with vol­un­teer region­al experts fought the project since it was first proposed.

Green­field busi­ness­man Lenny Weeks, whose large out­door signs at Tire Ware­house on Fed­er­al St. pro­vid­ed bio­mass updates and a place to sign peti­tions said, “I am proud to be a cit­i­zen of a com­mu­ni­ty that real­ly pulled togeth­er over the years in our bat­tle with bio­mass. I saw all walks of life show up and voice their opinions.”

For Weeks’ son, Jesse, the news is a relief. “For the last four and a half years, the peo­ple of Green­field and neigh­bor­ing towns have lived under the specter of an indus­tri­al sized bio­mass incin­er­a­tor- an anx­i­ety and real­i­ty which set­tled like a pall over all our homes and happiness.”