The prospects of a plan to put a $20 million food waste-to-energy plant on Ansonia’s North Division Street are looking increasingly bleak, if the questions from local lawmakers are any indication.
On Tuesday several Aldermen raised doubts about the project for about a half-hour at their regular monthly meeting as Chris Timbrell, a principal partner for the company that wants to build the plant, tried to quell their concerns.
Meanwhile, city officials have postponed a trip they had tentatively planned to Orlando, Fla. to see a similar facility there.
The plan still needs a host of permits and approvals from various state and local agencies — including a lease to build the plant on about 2.5 acres of city-owned land next to the city’s waste water treatment plant.
Tuesday’s discussion comes on the heels of a public forum last month at which residents expressed deep skepticism about the project.
Details
Timbrell, of Brooklyn-based Greenpoint Energy Partners, told Aldermen Tuesday that the 1‑megawatt facility would accept up to 50,000 tons of food waste from the area per year.
Microbes would break down the food waste into methane gas, which would then be used to generate electricity for the city to use.
The $20 million plant would employ eight people full-time, he said, and would receive six 30-ton trucks full of food waste per day. Four trucks stuffed with compost —- the byproduct of the digestion process -— would be carted away daily.
The energy generated by the plant would power the Water Pollution Control Authority’s waste water treatment facility and up to five other municipal buildings, Timbrell said.
He estimated the city would save about $250,000 annually on electricity costs and get about $175,000 in tax revenue from the plant yearly.
They’re Not Going To Disney World
Fifth Ward Alderwoman Joan Radin began the Aldermen’s discussion by bringing up a trip city officials had tentatively planned to see a digestion plant in Orlando, Fla. to be paid for out of the city’s coffers.
According to emails disclosed to the Valley Indy pursuant to a Freedom of Information request, officials had been planning the trip since as at least July.
A July 14 email from Timbrell to Chris Tymniak, Mayor David Cassetti’s chief administrative officer, indicates that Cassetti had recommended to Gary Hale, a former state senator currently lobbying on behalf of the project, that four people take part in the trip:
- Alderman Joseph Jeanette, Jr.
- Former Mayor James Della Volpe
- Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Bartholomew Flaherty
- Alderman Lorie Vaccaro
The emails indicate the site visit had originally been slated for July 28, then got pushed back to October.
Article continues after the emails.
But city officials said last week the trip, if it occurs at all, won’t be anytime soon.
“We have our own research to do on our end, still,” said John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel. “There’s a lot of answers we want to have before we go down there. The city’s doing its due diligence along with everybody else.”
Aldermen Questions
During Tuesday’s meeting Radin said that while the plant in theory sounds good, many of her constituents don’t want it.
“I don’t know about anybody else, but I have a very large group of people that do not want it,” she said.
Timbrell offered to send Radin more information on the project.
“We don’t want it. I don’t want it, and a lot of my constituents don’t want it,” Radin shot back. “We really don’t need it. It’s too small a town to have something like that.”
The First Ward’s Charles Stowe said he had heard from residents who were concerned about noise and possible odors generated by the plant.
He also wondered whether the Water Pollution Control Authority’s treatment plant would be able to handle the outflow from the digester.
“It could be beneficial to us … but we don’t have answers to the questions, so I’d have to vote ‘No’ at this point,” Stowe said of the project.
Patrick Henri, an Alderman from the Sixth Ward, also raised concerns about whether the WPCA could handle the water generated by the plant.
Timbrell replied that he’s working with a Mystic-based company to make sure the plant’s water could be handled by the WPCA.
“Whatever comes out of our plant will need to be clean to existing levels the WPCA currently receives,” he said.
Article continues after video of Tuesday’s meeting. The discussion on the anaerobic digester begins around the 1 hour, 39-minute mark on the video.
Matthew Edo, who also represents the Sixth Ward, asked Timbrell why Greenpoint is trying to build the plant in Ansonia, and what his company would be getting out of it.
Timbrell said he was drawn to the city by a company who performed an energy audit for the city in 2010.
They moved forward with their planning because city officials at the time were receptive, he said.
“There’s no sort of Macchiavellian designs as to why we picked Ansonia,” Timbrell said. “It’s just that we came here and the town wanted it to be built, and so we moved forward with it.”
He said he and his partner have put $100,000 of their own savings into the project, and would receive a fee from investors they’ve lined up to finance the project if it goes forward.
“This project is good for the environment, it’s good for the city, I believe,” Timbrell said. “I’m certainly not going to become rich through it.”
David Blackwell Jr., an Alderman from the Seventh Ward, asked Timbrell whether the plant could explode if not monitored closely by employees.
“Like all things, if things aren’t monitored, things go off the rails,” Timbrell replied.
The First Ward’s Edward Adamowski asked Mayor Cassetti what he thought of the project.
“I really need to know more about this before I make a decision,” Cassetti said.
The Aldermen took no action regarding the project Tuesday.
