On Thursday, the Conservation Law Foundation provided the City Council with a memo outlining the salient points from their presentation and relevant citations. I have posted that memo on my website for the public to be able to view at their leisure. You can view it here.
Aries had also sent four documents as a follow-up to their presentation. Those documents are posted on the City’s website. You can view them here.
The Telephone Town Hall took place on Thursday. Much of the information provided was consistent with the information that has been provided during Aries’ previous presentations, which is why I believe it would be beneficial to have a public forum with all sides represented.
A few things that I did take note of:
The City Solicitor mentioned that the Law Department provided a memo to the Inspector General explaining why this do not go through the public procurement process. It is good to know that the IG is taking a look at this question. The exemption provision that is being used is a special act that exempts the City from public procurement for the operation and maintenance of its wastewater treatment plant. Although this proposed facility will receive the 20 tons per day of sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment plant, it will be a completely independent facility owned by a private company that will accept 450 tons of additional outside sewage sludge (meaning it could certainly still function without the involvement of our wastewater treatment plant). I am eager to see what, if anything, comes out of the IG’s involvement in this process.
The Tennessee facility was mentioned during the Q+A. I took note of the fact that the sewage sludge there is now being landfilled and the facility is just processing wood waste. Although it was never entirely fed by sewage sludge, I would be interested to know why the sewage sludge is now being landfilled.
What we have not heard about is Aries’ proposal for another gasification facility in Newark, New Jersey. This proposal is facing similar scrutiny from an organization called Earthjustice. I have uploaded a letter they sent to their Planning Board on my website. You can view it here. As you can see, they express very similar concerns to the ones we are expressing here. When asked on the TCAM segment they recorded about if there is any similar opposition in New Jersey, Aries did not mention this group or even the Newark proposal at all (which is separate from the Linden facility that is under construction).
Lastly, I did want to once again recalibrate the discussion. The Conservation Law Foundation is not some evil corporation up to no good; they are a public interest organization whose concerns should be taken seriously. Aries is the corporation that is going to profit from this project. While that in and of itself does not mean they have bad intentions, it does mean that we should be listening to what they say with heightened scrutiny because we are the ones charged with making sure that what is done is fully vetted to be what is in the best interest of the City of Taunton.