Amador County – About a dozen people commented at a public hearing on the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant Subsequent Environmental Impact Report Wednesday in Jackson. The comment period ends today (Thursday, Sept. 30).
Planning Commissioner Andy Byrne asked about soil contaminants, and whether the EIR had a plan to sample and test soil as grading occurred. Consultant Gary Jacobs of Ascent Environmental said he would take that as a question to be answered with other comments, but if hazardous material was found, it would be addressed with appropriate agencies.
Byrne asked about heavy truck traffic combined with daily vehicle trips to the proposed Indian casino, saying “there is a way they overlap in cumulative effect,” but it was a comparison the commission had not yet seen. ¶ Rhonda Morningstar Pope, chairwoman of the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians, spoke about her tribe’s EIR for its proposed casino. She said she liked the power plant’s consultants’ approach because they had met with the tribe, “which is the most impacted neighbor because we are right across the road.”
Pope said the tribe in its casino EIR is “already mitigating” impacts on roads and flooding. She said: “Read the documents because they are being answered.”
Commissioner Denise Tober asked if the SEIR addressed that Amador Water Agency has requested additional water rights from Jackson Valley Irrigation District.
One man worried if there was enough slash to fuel the power plant, and said one such plant had closed.
Steve Brink of the California Forestry Association said “there’s no feed stock issue with this power plant,” and what the area needs is another 18-megawatt plant to open, because area forests could fuel it.
Brink said Amador and El Dorado county forests could produce 100,000 “bone dry tons” a year of wood waste, through forest fire fuels reduction programs. He said that slash is burned in the open air, and burning it in a combustion boiler gives a “98 percent reduction in emissions.”
Jerry Cassesi said he didn’t doubt there would be less impact than forest fires, but he worried about getting correct information. He said numbers in the EIR differed from those in a 2009 “Environmental Information Form.”
Cassesi wanted to know the number of fuel trucks expected daily at the plant, but “simple questions like that don’t seem to get answered in this EIR.” He said “without good information, it’s impossible to make good decisions.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
