FICTION: Russell Biomass will cause clear-cutting of forests to fuel its power plant.

FACT: 90% of the plant’s wood chips will come from roadside utility line clearing, clean discarded pallets, sawmill residue, stump removal and virgin wood scrap. The other 10% will come from waste parts of trees commercially harvested that are otherwise left in the forest. No clear-cutting will ever be needed or will occur. For scientific, professional or economic reasons, no licensed forester would allow clear-cutting in our region, and no forest landowner would wisely consider clear-cutting for wood chips. 

FICTION: Russell Biomass might switch from using clean waste wood to Construction and Demolition wood (C&D) after the plant is up and running.

FACT: The Town of Russell and Russell Biomass in 2005 agreed upon and signed a legally-enforceable contract prohibiting the burning of C&D wood.  The plant’s air permit does not allow the burning of C&D wood, which the DEP will enforce. The design of the Russell Biomass plant will not accommodate C&D wood as fuel.  Russell Biomass would have to go through years of public hearings and permitting, and spend millions of dollars to re-engineer and re-equip the plant to handle C&D. There is no economic, legal, practical or political incentive for this plant to burn C&D wood. 

FICTION: The water required by Russell Biomass will drain the Westfield River dry.

FACT: The maximum amount of water that the plant could withdraw is 1.37 cubic feet per second (cfs). Typical flows range from 1680 cfs in April to 144 cfs in August. The lowest the river has ever run in the last 100 years is 13.7 cfs. The DEP permit requires the plant to cease its withdrawal if the river flow ever drops to 17.8 cfs.  

FICTION: The water returned to the Westfield River from the plant will kill fish.

FACT:  The cooling water being returned to the river from the plant will raise the temperature in the discharge mixing area by less than 1 degree, and the river overall by less than 2/10 of a degree. This minor temperature change will not in any way affect the fish population already surviving with the natural winter to summer 40-degree fluctuation. 

FICTION: The smoke coming out of the biomass plant stack will cause serious health impacts for children and those with asthma and other lung ailments.

FACT: What you will see - if anything - is water vapor, not wood smoke. The concentration of particulates (the small particles that can cause lung damage) from the Russell Biomass plant stack emissions will be less than from one home wood stove. The plant will capture over 99 percent of the particulates and emit the remainder at a high velocity upward from a 300-foot stack. The emissions will actually be less than 5% of the strict EPA air quality standards set for the plant.

Because old-fashioned wood heaters are one of the primary causes of poor air quality, Russell Biomass is offering a free wood pellet stove exchange program after consulting with the American Lung Association. Free wood pellet stoves will be offered to the first 20 Russell residents in exchange for their older, dirtier cord wood stoves.  Since the particulate impact of the biomass plant will be less than one home wood stove, replacing 20 old wood stoves with new, cleaner pellet stoves will greatly improve our air quality.

FICTION: The average of 80 wood chip delivery trucks coming and going (160 truck trips) will cause serious impacts on downtown Russell.

FACT: The DPU rejected use of Main Street as a delivery route. Using Frog Hollow Road and the private extension which the developers will build to Route 20 will result in greatly diminished impacts as seen by the DPU.  Consider this: there are 37 driveways on Main Street and only one on Frog Hollow Road, four pedestrian crossings on Main Street and none on Frog Hollow, five side streets feeding into Main Street and none onto Frog Hollow Road, 30 houses within 50 feet of Main Street while there is only one home on Frog Hollow and 6 homes on River Street within 50 feet of the new delivery road.There will be no fuel deliveries on weekends; delivery hours will be restricted to weekdays from 6 AM - 5:30 PM.  Traffic will be limited to 20 MPH or less, reducing noise and vibration.Diesel emissions and fumes from trucks are virtually non-existent due to recent federally mandated changes in fuel composition. The transition to ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel) started in 2006 and will become mandatory June 1, 2010. The Russell Biomass diesel delivery trucks exhaust impacts will be less than 1% of the EPA health standard. 

FICTION: The plant’s noise and dust will be harmful to downtown residents.

FACT: There will be no wood chipping done on the plant site.  The detailed DEP-mandated noise impact study showed clear compliance with state noise standards, a requirement in order to receive the air permit issued last December.  Because the wood will average 40 percent moisture there need not be and will not be airborne dirt/dust problems, on or off the site.   

FICTION:  Russell Biomass will lower property values and hurt our quality of life.

FACT: Home values will actually rise for most Russell residents.  Major tax and job revenues from Russell Biomass will stimulate our economy and keep tax rates low, making home ownership in Russell more attractive. Russell Biomass has committed to compensating home owners on Frog Hollow Road and River Street if their real estate values decrease. Years ago the Town lost one of its largest tax payers when Westfield River Paper Company closed. Russell Biomass will replace that revenue more than 20 times over by paying an average of $1.3 million dollars to the Town each year for twenty years. A number of other features in the TIF agreement will provide generous programs and resources benefiting our youth, recreation, education and town services. 

FICTION: Burning wood chips is more harmful to the environment than burning coal.

FACT: There is absolutely no scientific basis for this claim. Hundreds of schools, hospitals and other institutions throughout our region are burning wood chips. They are facing huge financial pressures because coal may be cheaper per BTU. Why do they continue to use wood? Because prices are more stable, it’s renewable, local, cleaner, good for the forests and the environment, and it reduces our dependence on coal and other fossil fuels.