(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
The Saratoga Biochar project in front of the Town of Moreau Planning Board has drawn many people in opposition.
The Town of Moreau Planning Board will consider three options at its special meeting on the Saratoga Biochar project tonight, Thursday Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. No matter which option it picks, either one side or the other in the fight over the project will likely take further action, sources tell FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.
Saratoga Biochar has proposed to a new, $44 million, 34,100 square foot carbon fertilizer manufacturing plant on 5.9 acres at the Moreau Industrial Park at 2 Electric Drive.
Tonight, the board will consider full approval of the site plan, approval with conditions, or rescission of the original environmental impact decision that the board made earlier this year. The latter would give both the applicant and those opposed a chance to review the environmental impacts of the project.
The project has drawn considerable local opposition under the moniker “Not Moreau.”
Officials at Saratoga Biochar are ready to move forward, they said.
“We’re observing our rights under their own town law,” Ray Apy said in a recent interview. Apy is the CEO of the company. “Technically, by operation of law, it’s already been approved.”
He explained that the board had not made a decision on the project within the 45 days required after the public hearing on the site plan. Zoning Administrator Jim Martin said at the Aug. 15 meeting that the board was proceeding beyond the 45 days with the “tacit approval” of the applicant. The most recent public hearing was May 12, according to draft minutes posted on the planning board’s web page. The board also gave itself a 45-day extension that is allowed under law.
Apy said that his company was willing to let the site plan process continue to play out, and they were trying not to force the town's hand, but they had not relinquished their rights under the law, either.
If the site plan application fails, he said: “We could just proceed anyway and say, ‘We let the process run its course, but you missed your deadline anyway.’” He said he believes this move would be “bulletproof” since the town did not adhere to the law. Alternatively, his company might withdraw the application and try another locality.
Officials with the town planning department were not available to speak on this before the meeting and did not return emails requesting comment.
At the same time the Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls has retained the services of the PACE Environmental Litigation Clinic which has submitted a letter to the planning board that focuses on the “negative declaration” that the planning board made under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The declaration said the board believed there would be no significant, negative environmental impacts if the project were approved.
“The Planning Board’s conclusion that the facility will not have any potential significant adverse environmental impacts appears deeply flawed, and it is evident that the Planning Board has not yet complied with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). We urge the Planning Board to review the many public comments and its obligations under SEQR and rescind the negative declaration so an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) can be prepared, as it must be here,” the statement from PACE’s Todd Ommen says.
CAAN-GF Executive Director Tracy Frisch has been instrumental in the fight against the biochar facility.
"We have approached them [the PACE clinic] to help stop the project if it is approved," she said.
An EIS not only considers the ecological impact of a facility but the overall quality of life, including traffic issues, the amount of water being used, the flow into the town sewage lines and others.
She and the statement from PACE say that the initial “negative declaration” — that is, a declaration that there will be no or few significant environmental impacts — do not consider traffic, odors, noise and other issues nearly enough.
Frisch said the hope would be to slow the process tonight. If it passes, the project still has hurdles to jump with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, including approval of a Solid Waste Management Facility Permit and an Air State Facility Permit.
Both permits are listed as required on of the applicant currently. The board could approve the project with the condition that the company must receive the permits before construction could begin.
Still, filing a lawsuit may be an option.
"I think we have a very strong case that the way this was reviewed does not meet the standards” under SEQR, Frisch said.
For their part Saratoga BioChar says they have a clean, safe process.
They are not using raw sewage. Their process uses “unadulterated wood waste” and biosolids taken from the wastewater system after they have been treated in the wastewater treatment plant and then dried.
Their facility will run under negative air pressure so that fresh air is drawn in and then goes through filters before it exits the building.
Their process, pyrolysis, heats the biosolids without burning them. They are not an incinerator, officials are quick to say. Chemicals, such as PFAS and other harmful compounds, are released from the solids as gas, and the gas is burned.
Bryce Meeker said the process is controlled in such a way as to avoid creation of nitrogen oxides that are regulated air pollutants. Also, other chemicals, such as sulphates which cause acid rain, are removed in chemical baths. Other compounds such as ammonia are removed from the exiting air with chemical scrubbers.
Meeker, the president of the company, said that the fertilizer is not only clean but sequesters carbon in the soil and helps the soil retain moisture, limiting runoff into waterways.
He said the company wants to show that this technology can produce an environmentally safe and helpful product.
That may be the crux of the argument: the residents who are voicing their concerns say they do not want to be the guinea pigs in this process without more information.