Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 with one abstention Tuesday afternoon to deny three appeals on the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant, and in the same vote approved the electric generating plant’s permit to operate.

Supervisors held an appeal hearing and discussed three appeals, hearing from the applicant, citizens who appealed the project, and from consultants who wrote the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report for the plant, which will burn woody biomass waste, in a nearly 30-year-old facility on Coal Mine Road.

The Former Co-Gen plant could be a $25 million project, and bring $250,000 in tax revenue to the county.

More than 50 people attended the morning hearing, and more than 30 remained at the end, including Buena Vista Biomass applicant, Michael J. Muston, president and CEO of Otoka Local Renewable Energy of Bloomington, Minnesota.

Appellant Kevin Bundy, chief attorney for the “Center for Biological Diversity” spoke to the board, and county staff and consultants, with his concerns. County consultant on environmental law, special counsel Al Herson addressed the EIR, and said one issue at question was whether a new EIR was merited.

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse asked if the county EIR consultants, Ascent Environmental, wrote an “affirmatively misleading EIR,” as Bundy alleged. Herson said, that would mean that Ascent would have tried to “mislead the public about impacts,” and Herson said he did not believe that was true.

Herson said he worked with Ascent since the beginning of the process, and believed a “good faith effort” was made for “full disclosure” of the plant’s impacts.

He said it may have been a “failure to communicate”, as commenters wanted a new EIR. Herson said the Subsequent EIR was done because it was connected to an existing permit for the plant. He said “all of the impacts of this project are treated as new”, and the EIR used a non-operating plant as the base, to measure impacts.

Appellant Jerry Cassesi said he thought the “EIR was dismissive of the impacts of traffic” on a bridge and road in the Jackson Valley, especially with the potential for the Buena Vista Me-Wok tribe’s proposed Flying Cloud Casino, proposed to be located across Coalmine Road from the power plant.

Supervisors agreed, and made note of road and bridge impacts in conditions of approval, with those to be addressed in future work between the county and the applicant.

Tim Taylor, attorney for the applicant agreed with that, as long as they built in language for future reimbursement for the project.

Supervisor Brian Oneto recused himself at the start of the meeting to avoid a conflict as his family owns property adjacent to the plant.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.