Posted by Ed on March 8, 2008, 12:36 am
24.34.144.49
Billerica Watchers Group encourages others to join its fight against
power plant
The Lowell Sun
Article Last Updated: 03/07/2008 11:32:55 AM EST
I am writing this to all who have genuine concern for the future of
the Merrimack Valley. If you're not concerned about your health or
your home value, you don't need to read any further.
After standing in a doorway at a recent Billerica selectmen's meeting
while hearing and watching the DG Clean Power Limited Liability Corp.
speak, I thought, imagine if the Billerica Watchers had the financial
bandwidth to challenge, in a court, the Board of Selectmen's decision
not to allow any rebuttal. While many of Billerica's concerned
citizens stood in the aisles and hall, with many of them being
elderly and some with disabilities, non-residents sat sleeping or
half asleep in their rightful seats. DG Clean Power LLC proceeded to
attempt to discredit their valid concerns, as well as contradicting
their own previous statements. If allowed to respond, BWG would have
been able to address the accusations and misinformation which was put
forth for the unaware public to digest. The constitutional rights of
the average American citizens, who generally do not have an abundance
of wealth, have been clearly violated.
Here are example of some of the mistruths:
One: Under sworn testimony the proponents stated this power plant was
not a "reliability plant." Monday, it was called a "reliability
plant."
Two: Full-page ads in the newspapers claimed this plant would not
require water from the Concord River nor harm it. Monday stated on
record DG meant no "direct withdrawal or discharge to the river,"
water will still be coming from the river and displaced.
Three: Stated was, the five-year flow of the river data was hidden in
the submission filed with the state. The five years of data
submission was not provided to BWG, so who did they provide this to?
Yet another part of this fable, or perhaps this is yet another
research effort that DG Clean Power LLC will force BWG to create yet
another motion to obtain the information.
Four: Stated was the project has been 16 acres for over a year and a
half now. The original filing was for 13.8 acres.
Five: Selectman Marc Lombardo held up a DG propaganda flier that
stated, "We will not see it, hear it or smell it," yet the
supervising engineer finally admitted that it will be seen and it
will be heard. Noise was claimed to be mitigated, but DG failed to
mention its would need a waiver from the DEP for noise levels. A
false impression was left that if any violation of standards was to
occur the plant would be shut down. It would take months to do; read
the laws!
The best performance was on air quality. The claim that the BWG
experts were being overly conservative with their air modeling and
taking layers of pollutants and toxins into consideration is a no-
brainer. The BWG would like to state: This is "our valley" and
the "conservative toxins" referred to are in "our air" for every man,
woman, and child to breathe. Why shouldn't we take all these toxins
into consideration? We speak of reality, not of financial influence
or laws based on "BACT" Best Affordable Control Technology. Why
wouldn't the citizens of "our valley" want to ensure that every worst-
case scenario on air, safety, the environment, and the health of
ourselves and future generations to come, be analyzed?
All statements can be validated on record, because truth is plainer
than fiction. Speak up; we all have the right to a voice. Become
informed and join in with the BWG, to prevent this manipulation of
facts and suppression of our freedom of speech. Together as one
indivisible group of concerned citizens, we can save "our valley"
from fiction supported by finances.
ED CAMPLESE
The Billerica Watchers Group
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