A natural gas power plant proposed in Oxford would bring millions in tax revenue and hundreds of jobs to the town while stabilizing an antiquated electric grid.
Or, it would spew carcinogens from 150-foot smokestacks and sicken everybody around it with cancer, threaten pilots using a nearby airport, and decimate land values.
That was the non-consensus Thursday (Jan. 15) when more than 500 people crammed the Oxford High School’s auditorium as the Connecticut Siting Council began a public hearing on the proposed plant.
The siting council will not be making a decision anytime soon — its chairman, Robert Stein, said the hearing would be continued to dates over at least the next three months as officials review information on the plant proposal.
Background
Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures wants to build the power plant, “CPV Towantic Energy Center,” within the Woodruff Hill Industrial Park, near Waterbury-Oxford Airport.
A smaller, 500-megawatt power plant was approved for the same site in 1999, but never built.
Company officials say new power plants are needed as older coal- and oil-burning plants are decommissioned.
They also say the Oxford site provides a unique opportunity, because it’s at the intersection of major natural gas and power lines.
Click here for more background on the power plant proposal.
The siting council website also has a comprehensive archive of documents related to the proposal.
And click here to read about a report commissioned by CPV Towantic touting the economic benefits of the plant. The report was panned as “self-serving“ by a group opposed to the power plant.
Public Speaks
Most of the public input on the project Thursday didn’t involve nuanced discussions of the state’s aging power infrastructure.
Rather, comments on the project generally fell into two major categories: excitement at the prospects for jobs and the local economy, and concern over impacts to the environment and property values.
And those contrasting viewpoints were pretty balanced among those who provided testimony to the council — in the hearing’s first two hours, 22 people spoke in favor of the project, and 22 people spoke in opposition to it.
Those in favor included dozens of building tradespeople — several of whom were out-of-town union officials, but many Oxford residents as well — who pointed out the not-so-great economy for their professions.
They said a project like the power plant proposal would provide a desperately needed fillip in the form of $75 million in payroll and 300 to 500 construction jobs.
Supporters also the plant would fill the town’s coffers with needed tax revenue.
“The jobs and the tax revenue that will be produced by this project are truly staggering,” said Gerard Carbonaro, who chairs the finance committee of the Oxford Board of Education. “Oxford desperately needs this tax revenue.”
But opponents of the proposal, while conceding new jobs are great, asked the siting council to take a closer look at possible impacts to the environment and local property values.
Fran Teodosio, a former town attorney, said he was getting a checkup at his doctor’s office recently when the doctor mentioned he was moving to Oxford.
Teodosio informed him his new home would be about a mile away from the proposed plant.
“He doesn’t live in Oxford. He breached that contract,” Teodosio said.
The lawyer concluded by borrowing a phrase from anti-development activists in the Granite State.
“Do what they say in Vermont,” Teodosio said, adding that the proposal would be a better fit for a state like New Jersey. “When a big project comes up, they say ‘Please, don’t Jersey Vermont. I ask you not to Jersey Oxford, not to Jersey Naugatuck, not to Jersey Middlebury.”
The comment was met with rapturous applause.
“I guess we don’t have too many Chris Christie fans here,” Stein dead-panned as Teodosio was drowned out by clapping.
Other opponents pointed out the ways Oxford has changed since 1999, when a smaller power plant was approved for the same site.
The town’s population was just under 10,000 then, Oxford resident John Retartha pointed out. Since then it’s been one of the fastest-growing communities in Connecticut, with a population of 12,683 in 2010.
“Did it make sense in 1999 to approve a gas/oil-fired power plant on Woodruff Hill? I think not, but then, (some) felt that it was in a remote location in an area with little to no residential development might be an appropriate use for the land … but even then, it was out of character for the terrain and would have permanently scarred the landscape,” Retartha said. “Does it make sense in 2015 to put a 785-megawatt plant there, now that the residential makeup of the area has vastly changed?”
“Lets not turn a green field into a brownfield,” Retartha added.
Resident Paul Coward raised questions about a report by CPV’s environmental consultant, worrying the company would have to rely on purchasing “offsets” from environmental regulators to get the project up to snuff that wouldn’t reflect the real levels of pollutants released by it.
Story continues after this video report from WTNH:
Another resident, Peter Bunzl, said he was proud to be a “NIMBY” — a usually derogatory acronym for “Not In My Back Yard” — regarding the proposal.
“I think the concern for our health and safety far outweighs the need for jobs, and I think that’s what at issue here,” Bunzl said. “We’re not talking about a movie theater or a shopping center here, we’re talking about a massive power plant affecting thousands of backyards in this area.”
Robin Ciccarino agreed. “We’re supposed to be reducing our carbon footprint, not adding to it.”
David Rogers, a Naugatuck resident, said millions of dollars had been invested in the nearby Waterbury-Oxford Airport, and a power plant there would “fly in the face” of that investment.
Airport concerns were inter-generational at Thursday’s hearing. Andrew Spry, a 10-year-old student pilot, noted the airport’s popularity with people learning to fly, and said they shouldn’t have to negotiate around smokestacks spewing polluted air.“You cannot pack up the airport, but since the power plant is not built, you could pack up the power plant and move it to another part of the state where the power grid connects,” he said.
Rogers said he isn’t just worried about dirty air.
“It will create air pollution, noise pollution,” he said, also worrying the plant would contaminate the Naugatuck River.
“It would permanently devastate the rural nature and appeal of the area, not only because of the smell and the noise, but the smokestacks would be visible for miles,” Rogers said.
He conceded the project would have some economic benefit, but doubted much of it would trickle down to Oxford residents, and said the proposal would also hurt the rural character of the area.
“Help protect this area from being ruined in the name of greed and short-term objectives,” Rogers said. “Once this goes up, there’s no turning back. Please think of the many people who have made this their home with the specific goal of living in a healthy environment.”
Prior to the hearing Thursday, people toured the proposed location. Below are images shared on Twitter from that walk.
[View the story “Oxford Power Plant Site Walk” on Storify]