Notes from the CLC meeting on 6 November 2013

I took some notes at the Community Liaison Committee meeting held on Wednesday, 6 November 2013. These are not the official minutes; I’ll post a link to the Bio-en CLC Minutes page when I see them appear there.

• Construction update: Lots of activity.
  • A pre-treatment tank has been installed, one digester is done.
  • The floor for the repository tank is to be poured.
  • Q: Height? The tallest builing is 14 metres, the exhaust stack is 28 metres. The bubble domes are about 14 metres. The flare is about 8 metres high.
  • Construction is slightly behind schedule. It was behind at the start because of delays in obtaining building permits, slightly ahead during the summer, now behind again because of the rain.
  • Start of operations will be sometime in January 2014.
  • Acquisition of feedstock will take about three months.
  • The first power test will be in February, the first power for feed-in in March.
  • Waterloo North Hydro won’t be ready for power feed-in until February.
  • The base for the stack was laid today (6 Nov 2013), the stack will be raised the next time the crane is available.
• Michael Purves-Smith circulated a document with the text for presentation to Council to request matching funds for technical research.
  • There was discussion on whether advance notice should be sent to the Councillors, the media, members of the BFCC, or the appellants.
  • The CLC will send a notice, but not the actual document itself.
  • Chuck Martin will represent Woolwich Bio-en in the presentation to Council.
  • Robert Musselman and Marg Tassey Kreller will represent the CLC.
• Who is responsible for announcing the existence of the CLC?
  • Woolwich Bio-en has met its obligations by publishing CLC minutes and agendas on their web site.
• Who informs Council, sends notices, &c? (for Council presentation)
  • Michael Purves-Smith will do that.
  • Make sure Chuck Martin is available for the proposed presentation date.
  • Can CLC get confirmation from Woolwich Bio-en of their Letter of Credit prior to the presentation? Earl Brubacher will find out.
• Tour? Still too early; maybe end of December.
• There will be no “Grand Opening”, no press release to the media.
• Next meeting: Tuesday, 7 January 2014.
  • Meeting will likely be at the Woolwich Community Centre.
  • Woolwich Township has stated that since the Community Liaison Committee has no Woolwich Township staff members on it, they can no longer use the rooms in Woolwich Township hall.
  • Department of Safety (?) may require hard hats, safety shoes and an occupancy permit for a tour, so the decision for a tour date will be made at the next meeting.

My thanks go out to Earl Brubacher of Woolwich Bio-en for patiently answering all my questions, even though I am not a member of the CLC.

Also have a look at Alan Marshall’s CLC meeting report on the Elmira Advocate.

–Bob.