Demonstrators protest Russell Biomass LLC by the Westfield
By Dave Canton, The Westfield Evening News, Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Huntington – Before the first competitors of the Westfield River Whitewater Canoe Race passed the Huntington streamside park Saturday, more than two dozen demonstrators lined the river bank to protest Russell Biomass LLC.
Jane Chicoine, president of Concerned Citizens of Russell, told the crowd that the use of the river as a recreational asset is endangered by the Russell Biomass plans, plans that include take some 880,000 gallons of Westfield River water each day to cool a proposed 50 megawatt biomass fired generation plant and return just 100,000 gallons to the river flow.
Rob Moir, of the Ocean River Institute, said the use of Westfield River water during low water periods in August and September unduly harms a cold water fishery, one that the state has made a significant investment in over the years to bring spawning salmon back. “It is wrong to use that water to cool a power plant and then to return the 15% portion that does not evaporate back into the river as warm water.”
 Piotr Parasiewicz of the Rushing River Institute (at table in jacket, not cited in the News article) described a river tied to the aquifer. Behind him flowed river water rifting over rocks. Such turbulence is favored by coldstream river animals, in particular salmon.
I worry how much the Westfield is regulated by dams when I see shallow water waves during a time of year when the river should be running highest. It is disconcerting not knowing whether dam operators will permit enough water to flow past the Russell Biomass during low water weeks at the levels Russell says will be more than adequate for their withdrawals. Adding insult to disconcert, Russell Biomass has never installed flow meters or set up around the year instream-flow monitoring.
If a biomass utility does or does not cease withdrawals from river shallows will anyone know? To their credit Russell Biomass has said they will shut down and cease water withdrawal when the river is too low. The Westfield flows lowest during hot dry weeks of August into September. What assurances are there that Russell will cease electric generation during such peak air-conditioning days? Unregulated, they may find this difficult to do.
I ask for three assurances to be either implemented by Russell Biomass or as part of the DEP permit to build:
1.) Operational instream flow meters must be installed and maintained with data transmission monitoring available to citizen groups (transparency).
2.) Clear setting of the water withdrawal turn-off point, the instream flow amount in cubic feet per second that will be determinate for ceasing to take water from river (science-informed). This flow threshold amount may need to be adjusted when more is learned of the ecology, flow regimes, and effects of the evaporate water discharged back into the Westfield.
3.) Most important is the installation of air-cooling capacity for the RB electric generators, available as an option to enable electric generation to continue during limited “peak times” when no water-cooling is possible (competency).
It is impossible to predict how often and how long Russell Biomass will not be able to draw water to cool the utility. Not only are annual rainfall amounts (weather) and multi-year climate change affects difficult to predict, the actions of the two dams operators upriver are no more predictable than is the weather because the Russell utility is not forefront in their minds. Chance are dam operators will withhold water when the river is running low in order to maintain upstream river recreation and for municipalities to have reserves of water. If they do, harder times will come to life in the river downstream.
If Russell Biomass must be built having air-cooled capacity as back-up should over the long-run be money well spent. Â Nonetheless, water is just one of the issues Russell Biomass must address better before Westfield River citizens will accept this electric utility into their riparian neighborhoods.
Environmentalists brook displeasure with DEP decision for the Westfield River protest on April 18, 2009
Help With an Eight Dollar Holler.
Write-in $8 on the donation page and help ORI to meet the average per person costs of influencing decision-makers to save the Westfield River. When saving wildlife and ecosystems every holler helps. Thanks for helping us all get heard.
< Back to Actions
|
Sign and Comment ORI's Westfield River Letter