Woolwich Council Rejects CLC Funding

Posted on 18 December 2013 by Bob Jonkman

The Observer reports that Woolwich Council has turned down funding for the Bio-en Community Liaison Committee (CLC).

The agreement reached by Bio-en and the Elmira Bio-Fuel Citizens’ Committee (the appellants in the appeal against the MoE approval of the biogas plant) requires Bio-en to supply a $25,000 letter of credit, conditional on getting matching funds from either the Township of Woolwich or the public. The funds are to be used for the payment of technical engineering or scientific advice about or review of the operation of the facility.

Council’s refusal to work with Elmira’s citizens isn’t entirely unexpected. They refused to launch an appeal, saying getting expert evidence would be problematic […] expensive and time-consuming. That’s precisely why the CLC needs funding. But when Elmira citizens launched an appeal at their own expense, then Council was happy to request presenter status at the hearing instead. And although Council was invited to the appeal negotiations, the arbitrator noted in the Environmental Review Tribunal report that Despite the invitation, municipal representatives did not attend either meeting, however.

Council says their position is not to turn over public money to a group they don’t control. That says a lot about their motives — control. Their motive is certainly not to provide a public committee of Woolwich citizens with support. As Alan Marshall notes, this is a fine bit of hypocrisy. If public funds aren’t to be used for funding the public, what’s it for? Oh yes, control.

I hope that the CLC can raise the matching funds. Without funds for technical reviews the CLC becomes just a token gesture, toothless and useless as a watchdog over another industrial juggernaut rolling through Elmira.

Posted in Appeal, Citizen's Liaison Committee, Fundraising, News, Politics, Woolwich Township Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Look for Events Calendar

Posted on 22 November 2013 by Bob Jonkman

Hi everyone: The Events Calendar on Stop The Stink in Elmira has a new look, courtesy of Timely All-In-One Website Calendar.

The new calendar has categories for different types of events, which currently are BFCC meetings (there probably won’t be many of those any more), the Bio-en CLC meetings, CPAC meetings, and Council meetings.

The feed URL for the calendar has changed. To add this calendar to Microsft Outlook, Apple iCal or another calendar program you should use this URL:

http://sobac.com/~stopthestink/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events

At the moment the feed lists only future events; let me know if that’s a problem.

If you want to contribute to the calendar you can register and log in and add your own events about environmental concerns in Elmira.

If anyone would like to contribute to purchase the “Pro Calendar” edition then donations are gratefully accepted.

–Bob.

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Notes from the CLC meeting on 6 November 2013

Posted on 7 November 2013 by Bob Jonkman

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.

Posted in Chuck Martin, Citizen's Liaison Committee, Committees, Meetings, Woolwich Township Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CLC Minutes from 10 September 2013 are online

Posted on 31 October 2013 by Bob Jonkman

The minutes of the Community Liaison Committee meeting held on Tuesday, 10 September 2013 are now available on the Bio-en CLC Minutes page.

File: Sept10_2013minutes.pdf (PDF file, 151 KBytes)

The minutes are mirrored on this site, accessible from the menu bar above from “Documents ⇒ Bio-En CLC Documents ⇒ Bio-En CLC Meeting Minutes, 10 September 2013”.

Also, don’t forget the next meeting on Wednesday, 6 November 2013 at 7:00pm in the Dodie Hummel room of the Woolwich Township building.

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Agenda for Bio-en CLC meeting, Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Posted on 28 October 2013 by Bob Jonkman

The agenda for the Bio-en Community Liaison Committee meeting is now available on the Bio-en CLC Agendas page. This meeting was originally scheduled for Monday, but is now scheduled for Wednesday, 6 November 2013.

File: Nov06_2013meeting.pdf ( PDF file, 15.9 kBytes)

Woolwich Bio-en CLC Meeting

When: November 6, 2013

Time: 7:00 to 8:30 pm

Where: Township of Woolwich Building, Hummel room on second floor, doors will open at 6:45 pm & lock at 7:30 pm, both front & back doors will be open.

Agenda:

  1. September 10th meeting minutes
  2. Woolwich Bio-en update -construction schedule
  3. Other Business
  4. Schedule next meeting

Note:
This meeting is open to the public.

CLC members
Earl Brubacher, Chair
Doug Thomas, V chair
Marg Tassy Kreller
Robert Musselman
Earl Martin
Jerry Heidbuurt
Bob Gray
Michael Purves Smith
Kevin Martin

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Notes from CLC meeting on 10 September 2013

Posted on 12 September 2013 by Bob Jonkman

Here are a few interesting tidbits I picked up from the CLC meeting on Tuesday, 10 September 2013.

  • Construction update: Equipment is arriving, concrete is being poured, machinery is there, engines are there.
  • Construction will be complete by the end of the year; operations will start at the end of the year, and ramp up to capacity over six months.
  • The plant design is based on those in Austria, with changes to comply with Canadian building codes.
  • There will be no feedstock from biomass specifically grown for biogas digesters. That would require a different design.
  • The flare will not be temperature monitored; the MoE totally eliminated the temperature requirements. It is designed to be supplemented with natural gas to boost the temperature to 850°C. There is a 4 inch pipe to supply 10 psi of natural gas, should it be required.
  • The engines will run at less than 40% methane in the biogas, but nominal operating concentration is 60% methane.
  • Natural gas will not be used to run the engines powering the generators.
  • Frey Farms (map) has been awarded a 250 KW FIT contract to generate electricity. Bio-en will supply them with biogas, and possibly heat. There could be a pipeline to supply hot oil. The amount of gas to be used by Frey Farms represents about 9% of Bio-en’s capacity.
  • The CLC has struck a committee to draw up a presentation to Woolwich Council to request a letter of credit for matching funds for use for the payment of technical engineering or scientific advice about or review of the operations of the facility (q.v Environmental Review Tribunal Decision, section 6)
  • A site tour for members of the CLC is still premature. There’s still too much dirt. Maybe before the next meeting.

The next CLC meeting is scheduled for Monday, 4 November 2013 in the Dodie Hummel Room of the Woolwich Township building. However, that’s also the date of the televised Council meeting. Keep an eye on Bio-en’s CLC Agendas page for the actual agenda.

–Bob.

Addendum: Alan Marshall from the Elmira Advocate wrote some more notes on the meeting at Woolwich Bio-en Citizens Liaison Committee

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Elmira Independent on Todd Cowan

Posted on 12 September 2013 by Bob Jonkman

The Elmira Independent had a couple of articles last week about Woolwich mayor Todd Cowan’s comments on Bio-En and the provincial government.

First, the report on the Council meeting:

Woolwich mayor critical of provincial handling of Elmira biogas project

Woolwich Township mayor Todd Cowan is not pleased with the provincial government.

Cowan expressed his frustration at the Sept. 3 council meeting, after outlining the township’s numerous attempts to get support from the province to move Elmira’s biogas plant, prior to construction.

“We weren’t opposed to green energy,” said Cowan. “We just weren’t overly pleased with the location.”

And then, editor Gail Martin’s editorial:

You can’t blame a guy for trying.

During his entire tenure on council, Woolwich mayor Todd Cowan has insisted it would be possible, somehow, to move the Woolwich Bio-En biogas plant to another location.

[…]

Here is the reality. The Woolwich Bio-En project is well underway, and will not be moved.
We never expected that it could be moved, even if Cowan promised it could.
It was a promise he should have never made —and he was irresponsible to make it.

And that’s exactly what many of us suspected right from the time the project was announced. From the Woolwich Observer, 13 February 2009: A letter circulated to surrounding homes by Bio-En’s consultants, Conestoga Rovers & Associates, read "like it’s a done deal"…

And it’s been a done deal ever since.

Posted in Location, News, Politicians, Todd Cowan, Woolwich Township Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment