Winstanley presents modified biomass project plans

Outspoken Chester resident Cris Ericson confronts Adam Winstanley with concerns about increased truck traffic on Rt. 103, after a public meeting held in Springfield last night.

Winstanley, along with a panel of five others involved in the project, explained recent modifications in their plans to a small crowd of about 60 people gathered in the Springfield High School cafeteria. In attendance were members of the Town Select Board, the Town Planning Commission, and both Springfield representatives to the state legislature.

Their new plan calls for an air cooling system in place of the water cooling system that was originally planned. That would have required as much as 50,000 gallons a day piped in from the town public water supply. But the air cooling system will require construction of three 65 ft. high hexagon shaped towers in addition to the 10 story high wood burning plant itself. Some water use will still be needed but a system of rain water collection will be set up to capture runoff from acres of building roofs and paved parking lots.

Besides generating 35MW of electric power, the proposed plant would also be used to provide heat for industrial park buildings by piping hot water to them in a thermal loop. Their new plan extends the free heat to 100 of the nearest homeowners, but will require they have a $3,000 system installed in order to make use of it. Adam Winstanley said the ability to offer free heat is sure to attract more businessses to the park, "...and bring back some of the vibrancy of the past."

Electric generation alone by the proposed plant would result in only 25% energy effiency from the wood chip fuel but making use of the excess heat produced too brings it up to 34%. For North Springfield residents further away, they will offer a $150,000 wood stove change out program. New, more efficient, cleaner burning wood stoves would be given out at no cost to replace old stoves.

Addressing the noise issue, they promised no wood chipping would be done on site and most operational noise would occur only during daytime hours on weekdays and not on weekends. About 48 to 58 truckloads of wood chips would be delivered daily and the deliveries would be divided up, coming from different directions so as not to crowd any one road.

NOSAG member Walter Dodd asks a question to the 6 member panel.

Following the presentation, people were allowed to go up to the microphone and ask questions, beginning with the Select Board and then the Town Planners.    Town Moderator Patrick Ankuda as usual did an outstanding job of enforcing meeting rules which in this case limited speakers to only ask questions, brief and to the point, and no speeches.   With his commanding presence, its surprising how many think they can get away with stretching the rules. When 85 year old former Select Board member Jean Willard walked down to the mic with the aid of a cane she was immediately rebuffed and sent back to her seat upon uttering, "I just have a statement to make."

Jean Willard

One curious rule was the requirement that all members of the North Springfield Action Group identify themselves as such before asking their question while all others only had to state their names. It was implied there would be some unspecified retribution to any NOSAG member who dared try to get away with passing themselves off as just a common citizen.

Naturally, all the questions from the NOSAG'rs centered on possible negative impacts of the project such as traffic problems, health issues, decrease in property values and whatever else they could think of to put doubts in the minds of those present and whoever will be watching in a week or two a taped broadcast of the meeting on SAPA-TV.

Properly identified NOSAG member Angela Kelley, left, discusses her concerns with Adam Winstanley before heading back to her home in North Springfield.

The only really big smile seen while the meeting was in session was on the face of a logger who asked  how much were they expecting to spend on wood chips each year.  The answer? 14 million dollars.