Blowing Hot Air and Burning Down the Trash
By Dave Fisher, Managing Editor, EcoRI.org, June 28, 2011
Reprinted with permission
The war for energy independence is raging at both ends of our fair state....
South County communities such as North Kingstown and Charlestown are wrangling with the inevitable zoning restrictions and restrictive ordinances concerning wind power, or no specific zoning for commercial wind power at all. Add in a dash of NIMBYism, and you’ve got a recipe for towns that are going nowhere, fast, with respect to commercial turbines.
At the other end of the state, Woonsocket’s Rep. Jon Brien is fighting to overturn the state’s ban on trash incinerators in order to expand the sewer sludge burning operation at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which already stinks up the Blackstone Valley.
Environmental groups such as Clean Water Action and the Conservation Law Foundation have expressed, in no uncertain terms, their opposition to rescinding the ban on incineration and support for most of the state’s onshore renewable energy projects.
Many residents of North Kingstown have been vocal in their opposition to at least two of the three turbines slated to be erected in their town. Though the group No Residential Wind in North Kingstown’s (NRWNK) main concerns — on paper anyway — are the possible health and safety impacts on humans and wildlife, they also aren’t afraid to say that they think these things are ugly, don’t want them near their families, don’t want to pay more for electricity, and are concerned about decreased property values surrounding the turbines.
From the NRWNK website:
“We are in support of responsible regulations to be put into place outlawing industrial size wind turbines (over 100 feet) to be installed within 1 mile of residential homes in North Kingstown. This is for a variety of reasons including documented human health and safety issues, the killing of wildlife, ambient and low-frequency noise, shadow flicker from the spinning blades, ice throw, the lowering of property values, and the overall environmental and visual impact on our community.”
First, if you weigh the cost of erecting and tying a 100-foot-high turbine into the grid against the power and income generated by one that size, the project would never get off the ground. The sustained wind speeds at 100 feet couldn't generate enough power to be financially feasible. An ordinance worded thusly would effectively be a ban on wind power in North Kingstown.
Charlestown recently passed a similar ordinance that, as reported on Progressive Charlestown, “Town Planning (Commissioner) Ruth Platner notes that there is virtually no property in town that could harbor a major commercial turbine and abide by the setback and other conditions in the ordinance. She said the town's ordinance essentially eliminates commercial turbines.”
Second, though there is some anecdotal evidence, there is next to no hard data available on the effects — on humans or animals — of shadow flicker or the imperceptible “infrasound” generated by turbines. Some living in proximity to industrial turbines have reported symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness, nausea and insomnia, while others in the same neighborhood experience no symptoms at all. There is no causal link between turbines and these health issues. I wonder if people who have a problem with shadow flicker blink.
Third, the website claims that "birds including cranes, ducks, swans, geese, gulls have been found to collide with the blades of the turbines causing instant death. Birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, vultures, buzzards and owls have been found to be especially vulnerable. Furthermore, bats die a horrible death near wind turbines as the rapid changes in air pressure are too much for their lungs, causing their lungs to explode.”
The bird claim is a neat little half-truth. Birds are killed by turbines, but more birds are killed in the United States by outdoor domestic cats than by wind turbines. Soon, there may be a moratorium on letting Fluffy out at night. The bat problem is real, but mainly affects bats during migration. The same air pressure changes and turbulence from the turbines that cause bat lungs to hemorrhage also tend to keep the bugs that they eat at bay.
It would be interesting to find out how many of the folks from NRWNK would be willing to put up small vertical turbines on their own property. After all they are "supportive of alternative energy, maybe even wind turbines, only one caveat.........NOT NEAR OUR FAMILIES." Their emphasis, not mine.
At the other end of the state, Woonsocket politicians, including Rep. Brien, the mayor and City Council members, are all in favor of overturning the state’s ban on trash incinerators and classifying the energy produced as “renewable." Producers of actual renewable energy fear that reclassifying waste-to-energy as renewable would gum up their market. City residents are more concerned about the smell. The water treatment plant in Woonsocket already burns sewage sludge for energy and it makes most of downtown Woonsocket — and parts of Cumberland — stink to high heaven, sometimes even in the dead of winter.
While one could applaud Brien’s efforts to decrease our energy dependence on fossil fuels by burning trash, the idea itself is quite nihilistic. Brien claims that our recycling rates are not going up as fast as he would like, and tried to sell the idea to the public with slick catch phrases, that were summarily disproven. But Brien is still pressing the issue, and even got the legislation to lift the ban moved to the floor of the House. Fortunately, there is no corresponding legislation in the Senate, so a full vote by the General Assembly is unlikely in this session.
Here are four reasons to be against this rescinding of current law:
Rhode Island's recycling rates are pretty dismal, considering that we were the first state to pass a mandatory recycling law (1986), but the planned shift to single-stream recycling statewide in 2012 should boost these rates significantly. (We hope.) Another way to boost rates would be to include small businesses in municipal recyclable collection. The town of Warren has been collecting recyclables from businesses on Main Street for a while now, and the city of Newport will begin this program, citywide, next week.
Regardless of the lessened daily environmental impacts of modern incinerators, there is still the issue of disposing of the ash (hazardous waste) from the incinerator and the old “scrubbers” from the smokestacks (also hazardous waste). Trash incinerators also are notoriously inefficient.
Orbit Energy Inc. has a tentative land lease with the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) to build a 150-ton anaerobic digester at the Central Landfill in Johnston. This digester would take organic waste — mostly food scraps — and digest it to create methane, which is then burned off to create electricity, and the remains can be turned into high-grade compost. This is a win-win-win. Less methane-producing trash in the state landfill, increased energy independence and compost to bolster our soil and agricultural lands. Orbit has already reached a power purchase agreement with the state Public Utilities Commission.
RIRRC’s executive director, Mike McConnell, recently said the project was't financially feasible on the small-scale that is proposed for the plant.
Here’s my take. Burning our trash is the height of apathy and laziness, and only promotes consumptive lifestyles without actually attempting to change environmentally destructive behaviors. Rhode Island residents not recycling enough? Too much stuff going into the landfill? Screw it! We’ll just burn it! Whatever you do, don't change your day-to-day life or actually think about where your trash goes when it leaves the curb.
Renewable energy is the future, and every city and town should have some type of overarching zoning laws for wind energy, but, those laws must be flexible and not designed as a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” ban on turbines. North Kingstown and Charlestown residents can argue about wind power's impact, vis-a-vis property values, all they want, but if we don’t get off fossil fuels, and soon, I’ll be laughing at them from my oceanfront home in Woonsocket, where, with any luck, my trash won’t be being burned.
Dave Fisher is the managing editor of ecoRI News.
Reprinted with permission
The war for energy independence is raging at both ends of our fair state....
South County communities such as North Kingstown and Charlestown are wrangling with the inevitable zoning restrictions and restrictive ordinances concerning wind power, or no specific zoning for commercial wind power at all. Add in a dash of NIMBYism, and you’ve got a recipe for towns that are going nowhere, fast, with respect to commercial turbines.
At the other end of the state, Woonsocket’s Rep. Jon Brien is fighting to overturn the state’s ban on trash incinerators in order to expand the sewer sludge burning operation at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which already stinks up the Blackstone Valley.
Environmental groups such as Clean Water Action and the Conservation Law Foundation have expressed, in no uncertain terms, their opposition to rescinding the ban on incineration and support for most of the state’s onshore renewable energy projects.
Many residents of North Kingstown have been vocal in their opposition to at least two of the three turbines slated to be erected in their town. Though the group No Residential Wind in North Kingstown’s (NRWNK) main concerns — on paper anyway — are the possible health and safety impacts on humans and wildlife, they also aren’t afraid to say that they think these things are ugly, don’t want them near their families, don’t want to pay more for electricity, and are concerned about decreased property values surrounding the turbines.
From the NRWNK website:
“We are in support of responsible regulations to be put into place outlawing industrial size wind turbines (over 100 feet) to be installed within 1 mile of residential homes in North Kingstown. This is for a variety of reasons including documented human health and safety issues, the killing of wildlife, ambient and low-frequency noise, shadow flicker from the spinning blades, ice throw, the lowering of property values, and the overall environmental and visual impact on our community.”
First, if you weigh the cost of erecting and tying a 100-foot-high turbine into the grid against the power and income generated by one that size, the project would never get off the ground. The sustained wind speeds at 100 feet couldn't generate enough power to be financially feasible. An ordinance worded thusly would effectively be a ban on wind power in North Kingstown.
Charlestown recently passed a similar ordinance that, as reported on Progressive Charlestown, “Town Planning (Commissioner) Ruth Platner notes that there is virtually no property in town that could harbor a major commercial turbine and abide by the setback and other conditions in the ordinance. She said the town's ordinance essentially eliminates commercial turbines.”
Second, though there is some anecdotal evidence, there is next to no hard data available on the effects — on humans or animals — of shadow flicker or the imperceptible “infrasound” generated by turbines. Some living in proximity to industrial turbines have reported symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness, nausea and insomnia, while others in the same neighborhood experience no symptoms at all. There is no causal link between turbines and these health issues. I wonder if people who have a problem with shadow flicker blink.
Third, the website claims that "birds including cranes, ducks, swans, geese, gulls have been found to collide with the blades of the turbines causing instant death. Birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, vultures, buzzards and owls have been found to be especially vulnerable. Furthermore, bats die a horrible death near wind turbines as the rapid changes in air pressure are too much for their lungs, causing their lungs to explode.”
The bird claim is a neat little half-truth. Birds are killed by turbines, but more birds are killed in the United States by outdoor domestic cats than by wind turbines. Soon, there may be a moratorium on letting Fluffy out at night. The bat problem is real, but mainly affects bats during migration. The same air pressure changes and turbulence from the turbines that cause bat lungs to hemorrhage also tend to keep the bugs that they eat at bay.
It would be interesting to find out how many of the folks from NRWNK would be willing to put up small vertical turbines on their own property. After all they are "supportive of alternative energy, maybe even wind turbines, only one caveat.........NOT NEAR OUR FAMILIES." Their emphasis, not mine.
At the other end of the state, Woonsocket politicians, including Rep. Brien, the mayor and City Council members, are all in favor of overturning the state’s ban on trash incinerators and classifying the energy produced as “renewable." Producers of actual renewable energy fear that reclassifying waste-to-energy as renewable would gum up their market. City residents are more concerned about the smell. The water treatment plant in Woonsocket already burns sewage sludge for energy and it makes most of downtown Woonsocket — and parts of Cumberland — stink to high heaven, sometimes even in the dead of winter.
While one could applaud Brien’s efforts to decrease our energy dependence on fossil fuels by burning trash, the idea itself is quite nihilistic. Brien claims that our recycling rates are not going up as fast as he would like, and tried to sell the idea to the public with slick catch phrases, that were summarily disproven. But Brien is still pressing the issue, and even got the legislation to lift the ban moved to the floor of the House. Fortunately, there is no corresponding legislation in the Senate, so a full vote by the General Assembly is unlikely in this session.
Here are four reasons to be against this rescinding of current law:
Rhode Island's recycling rates are pretty dismal, considering that we were the first state to pass a mandatory recycling law (1986), but the planned shift to single-stream recycling statewide in 2012 should boost these rates significantly. (We hope.) Another way to boost rates would be to include small businesses in municipal recyclable collection. The town of Warren has been collecting recyclables from businesses on Main Street for a while now, and the city of Newport will begin this program, citywide, next week.
Regardless of the lessened daily environmental impacts of modern incinerators, there is still the issue of disposing of the ash (hazardous waste) from the incinerator and the old “scrubbers” from the smokestacks (also hazardous waste). Trash incinerators also are notoriously inefficient.
Orbit Energy Inc. has a tentative land lease with the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) to build a 150-ton anaerobic digester at the Central Landfill in Johnston. This digester would take organic waste — mostly food scraps — and digest it to create methane, which is then burned off to create electricity, and the remains can be turned into high-grade compost. This is a win-win-win. Less methane-producing trash in the state landfill, increased energy independence and compost to bolster our soil and agricultural lands. Orbit has already reached a power purchase agreement with the state Public Utilities Commission.
RIRRC’s executive director, Mike McConnell, recently said the project was't financially feasible on the small-scale that is proposed for the plant.
Here’s my take. Burning our trash is the height of apathy and laziness, and only promotes consumptive lifestyles without actually attempting to change environmentally destructive behaviors. Rhode Island residents not recycling enough? Too much stuff going into the landfill? Screw it! We’ll just burn it! Whatever you do, don't change your day-to-day life or actually think about where your trash goes when it leaves the curb.
Renewable energy is the future, and every city and town should have some type of overarching zoning laws for wind energy, but, those laws must be flexible and not designed as a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” ban on turbines. North Kingstown and Charlestown residents can argue about wind power's impact, vis-a-vis property values, all they want, but if we don’t get off fossil fuels, and soon, I’ll be laughing at them from my oceanfront home in Woonsocket, where, with any luck, my trash won’t be being burned.
Dave Fisher is the managing editor of ecoRI News.
Posted on 
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 5:35PM
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 5:35PM