Published in the Courier-Tribune on September 10, 2011
by Hugh Martin
CANDOR - A full house is expected at the Monday, Sept. 12, meeting of the Candor Board of Commissioners at 7 p.m. for two public hearings on amending the town’s zoning ordinance to allow specific forms of energy generation within areas zoned for industrial use.
At issue is a request by Mountaire Farms to construct a biomass facility to generate electricity to power its feed mill, located in the city limits east of Interstate 73/74. The facility would burn chicken litter that would be trucked to the facility. The electricity generated would be used by the facility for operations with any excess electricity being sold to Progress Energy.
Four to five trucks a day are expected to bring the litter to the site. Will Kisner, of facility designer Port-Land Systems, said that trucks hauling the litter would be sealed with tarps and pulled inside the building for unloading.
The Candor Planning Board met twice in August to consider two separate amendments, one that would allow the change of fuel sources by local industries and allow the generation of electricity by an industry for their own use or for sale to the local utility.
A competing amendment was presented by a group of local residents who oppose the process that Mountaire has proposed. Both amendments were approved by the planning board and have been sent to town commissioners for consideration.
Opponents of the first proposed amendment have been active in contacting residents to explain their opposition to the possibility of burning chicken litter to produce energy.
Over 50 people attended a meeting called by opponents on Sept. 6 to present information on the biomass process to the public.
Bill Bruton of Candor is leading the opposition. In a published letter signed by Bruton and 18 others, including four medical doctors, Bruton said, “chicken manure contains arsenic and bacteria” and “chicken litter contains toxins, including copper, sulfur and arsenic.”
According to Bruton, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources has said the town would be responsible for compliance with the Watershed Protection Ordinance.
“Does anyone really think that Candor should be an abandoned guinea pig for three new low-wage jobs and $45,000 increased tax revenues?” he asked.
Bruton said the incineration of chicken litter produces dioxin and the burning of over 35,000 tons of chicken litter per year at one site within the city limits is a bad idea.
“Does the concept of just a little bit of dioxin make it more acceptable?” he asked.
At an earlier informational meeting about the Mountaire project, Joe Sullivan of Trinity Consultants, an air quality emissions permitting company, said the filtering system for the facility would be the most efficient available, calling it a “Cadillac system” for this type of operation.
Russell Hollers, who lives near the site, asked if the company had ever built one of these facilities before. Brownie Newman of FLS Energy, which would operate the facility, said they had built similar facilities.
Newman said that the trucks bringing litter to the site would be washed for bio-security with the effluent going into the municipal sewer system. The fly ash from the incinerator would be transported outside of the town and sold to companies that would use the byproduct to manufacture fertilizer.
Tammy Kellis, Candor town clerk, said that the meeting will take place at the Town Hall on South Main Street. No plans have been made to move the meeting to a larger venue for the purpose of accommodating more people than the town hall can hold.
No comments:
Post a Comment