Dear Editor:

At the Sierra Club meeting on April 2, LaGrange Mayor Jeff Lukken and Troup County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe appeared to give a power point presentation on the planned wood burning biomass plant to be built on Old Hutchinson Mill Road. I came prepared to ask as many probing questions as I could come up with, feeling that the plant would emit noxious fumes, use too much of our water and burn up our forests.

What I heard was almost too good to be true. Both our mayor and our county commision chairman had been concerned about the life of our landfill space. The plant which had been buying wood chips had closed and a huge supply of clean chips would be dumped in our landfill. This would likely reduce its seven-year life despite the recent purchase of a 24-acre site at a cost of $412,000 to the taxpayers.

They decided to travel to Cadillac, Michigan to view a biomass reactor that was fueled by wood chips. They saw a clean operation constantly monitoring its emissions – only a fraction of the allowable amounts of carbon dioxide and other chemicals were being produced. The ash that it produced was being grabbed up by local chicken farmers. It did not have a foul odor or make a great deal of noise. There was nothing enitted from its smokestacks except a mist on cool days. This seemed like a good option for Troup County.

Rollcast Co. has proposed such a facility here and has purchased a 147 acre site of which the plant would occupy only 35 acres. The wetlands contiguous to it could be used along with a tour of the facility as an environmental teaching park. The county has offered no tax advantage to the company. As a matter of fact, this $170 million plant would pay $800,000 yearly in taxes. It would produce enough power to provide electricity for 30,000 homes.

This facility would use only clean non treated wood and it would provide a use for the huge amount of chips that are continually collecting. It would provide 50 jobs during the construction phase and 22 jobs on an on-going basis. Rollcast would buy grey water from the nearby treatment plant and return it in the same condition it was received. There are many hoops that EPD and EPA will require them to jump through before granting permits. On paper it seems like a win/win situation.

However there has been a noted lack of manpower at EPD and incredible laxness at EPA during the last eight years.( the permitting of the Turkey Creek Landfill is an example of that and was an issue that was raised passionately.) No public hearing has been held on this biomass operation. The mayor stated that since no taxpayer money was involved it did not seem necessary but now realizes that was an oversight. There will be a public hearing.

This company - Rollcast -was well represented by John Campbell who seemed to have a lot of reasonable answers. However this is the second wood burning biomass reactor they have ever built. It will be interesting to follow the progress of the permitting and let’s hope this will be a boon for the taxpayers.

Edna Foster

LaGrange