Amador County – A public hearing on an amendment to the permit to operate the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant this week included talk of potential new jobs created by the plant’s reopening.
Applicant Otoka Company, owned by Michael J. Monston, of Bloomington, Minnesota, seeks to truck in woody biomass waste to be burned in the power generation plant on Coal Mine Road in the Jackson Valley.
Steve Brink of the California Forestry Association and Associated California Loggers Executive Director Eric Carlson both spoke in support of the project, for its increase in forest jobs, and potential for helping manage forests.
Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky also supported the plant. He said the 50-mile radius around the plant “includes my entire district,” where “people have been laid off my whole life.” That radius is identified in the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report as the source for fuels, from forest management.
Wilensky said in the past, 22 mills operated in Calaveras County, but now zero operate there, the last one having closed 12 years ago.
The EIR is thorough, Wilensky said, but he wanted to comment on biological and forest resources. He said it is biologically unsound because plantations have not been managed, leading to three catastrophic fires burning tens of thousands of acres each, the latest affecting Amador County.
He said the economy has “broken four or five generations of continuity,” forests “have been neglected for the better part of a generation,” and “it’s time to put people back to work.”
Robert Smith, a local contractor, said he was currently removing forest fuel through a federal Job Training grant on 450 acres with the Bureau of Land Management. But he said the grant ends soon, and “nine families are about to be out of work.”
Jackson Valley resident and BVBP critic Jerry Cassesi said he is not against jobs, but he thought jobs would mostly be tri-county, not local, at the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant. He said a full EIR might find a better way to use a truckload of wood chips and keep people working.
Cassesi said work already has begun at the Buena Vista power plant on Coal Mine Road, where the county used the Draft EIR to authorize construction. In a letter, he asked for an extension of 30 to 90 days to further review the SEIR, for which comments were due Thursday, Sept. 30.
Commissioner Ray Lindstrom asked about construction already occurring at the plant, and Planner Nathan Lishman said restorative work had been done at the plant, but the company has been told by the county to stop work.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
