CCGC Presentation to Gadsden County School Board on Gretna Biomass Incinerator

Posted on January 28, 2010 by jamesmaloy

James Maloy and Dr. Ron Saff, members of the Concerned Citizens of Gadsden County (CCGC) and Floridians Against Incinerators In Disguise presented information on the Gretna Biomass Incinerator to Gadsden County School Board.

David Gardner, Director of the Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce was recently quoted in the Tallahassee Democrat as saying “Wednesday’s announcement in Gretna was the culmination of three years’ worth of effort, including the determination of an appropriate site and building community support.”

The Gretna Biomass Incinerator will be located on property adjacent to an elementary school with a 100% minority student population, a nearby residential neighborhood and a women’s correctional facility located directly across the street.

Reginald James, Superintendent of the Gadsden County School District stated during the presentation that CCGC was the first to bring the information pertaining to the Gretna Biomass Incinerator to the attention of the School Board.  After 3 years of “building community suport”, no effort had been made by Gadsden County, Chamber of Commerce or City of Gretna Officials to properly inform the school board or the community – we are still waiting.

Part 2 to follow.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2s5nQuh5Vs]

Posted in Biomass Opponents, Environmental Opposition, Gadsden County, Medical Opposition, Scientific Facts, Subsidies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

PRESS RELEASE: Groups Oppose Tax Credits for Biomass Burning

Posted on January 27, 2010 by jamesmaloy

For immediate release:
Contact: Attorney Margaret Sheehan, 508-259-9154, meg@ecolaw.biz or James Maloy, President – Concerned Citizens of Gadsden County, admin@biomess.us, 850-583-1017.

A national coalition of 48 citizen and environmental groups including Concerned Citizens of Gadsden County today launched a nationwide campaign to end federal financing for biomass incinerators being called “green energy.”   The groups delivered letters to Senate Finance Committee Chairs Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) in response to increased lobbying by the Biomass Power Association, timber, waste and energy companies seeking to create or extend lucrative tax credits for burning biomass (trash, tires, and anything else) to produce electric power. The groups say the biomass plants pose an undue risk to public health and the environment. Continue reading →

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Gadsden County polluted by world's largest Biomass Incinerator in 1985

Posted on January 25, 2010 by jamesmaloy

The old saying about learning from history or being destined to repeat it holds true in our community. In 1985, Southern Electric International began construction on what was at the time the world’s largest Wood Fueled Fluidized Bed Biomass Incinerator at the Floradin Mine on Attapulgus Highway in Quincy, Florida that was used produce gas to fuel the large clay dryers for the mine.

The project was constructed using what was  at the time, “state of the art technology”. Throughout the period during 1987 – 1988, the project received numerous Technology Innovation awards (Page 6 from Permit Files pdf) from the Governor of Florida, the U.S. Department of Energy and the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers). By 1990, the plant had been shut down due to continuous violations of air emission standards and making residents physically ill. Continue reading →

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ADAGE's false and misleading claims.

Posted on January 20, 2010 by jamesmaloy

A letter from Attorney Margaret Sheehan to ADAGE

Dear Sir/Madam:

Your website contains false information about the carbon neutrality of biomass combustion used to generate electricity. It states,

“Biopower to the People

The ADAGE biopower process uses wood debris from forest operations to generate electricity. This green electricity is carbon-neutral energy that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels and associated greenhouse gases. Click on the image above to learn more about how our process works and positively affects local communities and the environment. http://www.adagebiopower.com/process.php”

The claim of the carbon neutrality of biomass burning is unsubstantiated by science, and has been debunked by a team of leading scientists,  writing in Science, 325:529, October 23, 2009, who state, Continue reading →

Posted in Biomass Opponents, Gadsden County, Scientific Facts | Tagged | 2 Comments

City of Quincy files for Air permit for their very own incinerator – Merry Christmas!

Posted on January 14, 2010 by jamesmaloy

By the time state and local officials are done making very bad choices, you won’t be left with any clean air or water in the North Florida area. The cumulative negative effect on your health from the seemingly endless announcements for projects announced for the North Florida area that will be incinerating wood, garbage, farm and municipal wastes, and other forms of so called “Biomass”, is a frightening thought to contemplate.

The Gadsden County Times printed a public notice today – January 14, 2010 of Intent to Issue Air Permit for the City of Quincy, Byrd Landfill Air Curtain Incinerator (to resume operations)……..a smaller version of the Biomass Incinerator planned for Gretna. Permit applied will allow for 800 hours of operation, as opposed to the 8700+ hours of operation for the Gretna Biomass Incinerator. The City of Quincy Incinerator will Produce the following pollutants for you and your fellow residents to breathe:

  • 67.6 tons of Particulate matter
  • 20.8 tons of Nitrous Oxides
  • .5 tons of Sulfur Dioxides
  • 98.8 tons of volatile organic compounds.

Keep in mind that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection does not look at air quality in Quincy when they determine permitting incinerators – they look regionally, taking samples from Gainesville, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Valdosta, etc. and do not consider the cumulative effect of the Hazardous Air Pollutants pouring from the many incinerators being scheduled for the North Florida Area.

Your air is about to become a health hazard to you and you can thank your state and local politicians for the privilege of being poisoned.

The Biomass industry intentionally targets poor rural communities because they know that they will receive the least amount of opposition in these communities. They believe that Gadsden County is so poor rural, uninformed and desperate that you won’t mind not one, but two wood burning incinerators in a community of 20,000 people, located within a few miles of each other.

The City’s incinerator is located across the street from the hospital that Gadsden County voters agreed to have their taxes increased to fund renovation and operation last year – Location, Location, Location!

Merry Christmas Quincy, Florida…..

Posted in Biomass Opponents, Gadsden County | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The unintended ripples from the biomass subsidy program – washingtonpost.com

Posted on January 10, 2010 by jamesmaloy

Below is a link to an article on the Washington Post regarding Biomass subsidies and their effect on other industries, jobs and prices of raw materials. When you’re done reading, call your State Representatives and Congressmen……..

The unintended ripples from the biomass subsidy program – washingtonpost.com.

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Gadsden County Florida Citizen Group forms in opposition to Gretna Biomass Incinerator

Posted on January 5, 2010 by jamesmaloy

The Concerned Citizens of Gadsden County was officially formed on January 2, 2010. The group was formed by local residents concerned about the plans for a Biomass Incinerator that has been announced for Gretna, Florida in Gadsden County and the imminent danger to public health posed by the hundreds of tons of hazardous air pollutants emitted from the smoke stack of the Incinerator if it is allowed to be constructed.

James E. Maloy Jr., of Quincy, Florida was chosen by the group to represent the Concerned Citizens of Gadsden County as their first President.

For more information on the group, its activities and becoming a part of the opposition to Biomass Incineration in Gadsden County please send an email to admin@biomess.us, or contact Mr. Maloy by phone at 850-575-0189 x2248.

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An open letter to my community:

Posted on December 31, 2009 by jamesmaloy

Below is a letter from one of our fellow Biomass Opponents submitted to local media outlets today:

My only child, Jamie is a 3 and a half year old asthmatic. Although the job opportunity that brought me to this area is located in the City of Tallahassee, my wife and I chose to move to Gadsden County six years ago and invest our life savings in a quiet beautiful parcel of land just outside the city limits of Gretna, a place that we have called home for almost 6 years. I share everyone’s concern about our local and national economies, and I understand that an announcement any community about hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenue is indeed good news.

Since the project was announced, I have been educating myself about the proposed facility to be constructed by ADAGE, LLC that has been labeled as “Clean, Green and Renewable”. What I have learned since that day has left me completely disturbed. The play yard that I built for my asthmatic son is 1.9 miles from the proposed Gretna Biomass Incinerator. His pre-school is 3 miles away. Gretna Elementary is 1 mile away. There are 5 schools within 4 miles of this proposed facility. There is a prison directly across the street that has an inmate population of 1,541 women – over 1,300 of those women are of childbearing age.

I do not believe that any of our elected county, city officials or local leaders would knowingly place these citizens and their children at risk, but the seemingly unanimous political support leads me to believe that a well rounded presentation of the facts have not been presented to them. Continue reading →

Posted in Gadsden County, Medical Opposition | 9 Comments

Not enough wood for GRU's furnace

Posted on December 30, 2009 by jamesmaloy

Published with permission of Dian Deevey, Chair, Alachua County Environmental Protection Advisory Committee, Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville Sun Letters to the Editor – Published: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

In his Dec. 20 column, Ron Cunningham listed some of the reasons wood for GRU’s biomass generator may be too expensive for us to buy when that unit is ready to produce electricity. He suggests the local community could buy a forest to supply fuel for the plant “just in case” prices reach a level we cannot afford.

He says we might even persuade the state to allow harvesting fuel wood on the forest land it owns in the county.

It’s a good thought, except that there isn’t enough available forest land in the county to help us ratepayers much. The plant will burn nearly 2 tons of wood a minute, and it takes over an acre of productive Florida timberland to grow that much wood in a year.

The county owns and manages 6,100 acres of productive timberland, while the state owns about 5,500 acres outside Payne’s Prairie. Together, state and county-owned forests might fuel about seven and a half days of biomass generator operation each year, assuming they were sustainably managed and produced as much wood per acre as the commercial timberlands in the county do.

Even if we clear cut the whole 11,700 acres of county and local state forestland to fire the plant in an emergency, the total harvest would supply the generator for only about nine months.

It would take about 880 square miles of sustainably managed Florida timberland land to supply all the wood GRU will burn in its generator in a year. There are only 874 square miles of dry land in the entire county.

Few people understand how much wood electricity generation requires, and how slowly it grows.  It would take 850 square miles of sustainably managed Florida forest land to supply all the wood GRU will burn in its generator in a year. That’s one of the reasons many of us have opposed it since the idea first surfaced.

Dian Deevey,

Chair,

Alachua County

Environmental Protection

Advisory Committee,

Gainesville

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A view of your future with a Biomass Plant

Posted on December 28, 2009 by jamesmaloy

The Hamilton County Biomass Incinerator will be fueled by 100 TONS PER HOUR of clean woody biomass – that’s five 20 ton trucks with a 20 ton payload every hour…….

  • 310 Truck Trips per day (total) – trucks with an average weight of 30 tons hauling wood, ash, ammonia and dry sorbent.
  • Wood will be delivered by truck 125 trips per day (Fully loaded trucks with a weight of 40 tons)
  • There is not enough wood debris available to fuel these Biomass Incinerators – they will be burning whole trees and our county will be deforested rapidly.

Your air will contain the following:

247.5 tons per year (TPY) of carbon monoxide (CO); 236 TPY of nitrogen oxides (NOX); 140 TPY of particulate matter (PM); 110 TPY of PM with a mean diameter of 10 micrometers (μm) or less (PM10); 26 TPY of sulfuric acid mist (SAM); 150 TPY of sulfur dioxide (SO2); 60 TPY of volatile organic compounds (VOC); 0.175 TPY of lead (Pb) and 9.7 TPY of hydrogen chloride (HCl).

Information obtained from public records and permit applications for the Hamilton County Biomass Incinerator Project – the first of ADAGE’s announced Biomass Incinerators projects. It has been reported that ADAGE has plans to build 100 of these Biomass Incinerators across Florida, South Georgia and Texas.

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