Officials with Saratoga Biochar Solutions are disputing claims from local opponents of the proposed facility.
A proposed $83 million facility that would be placed in the town of Moreau’s industrial park has raised concern over potential environmental impacts and dissatisfaction with local leaders.
Jim Toler, one of almost 80 attendees at a recent activist-run community meeting, claims November’s election was a referendum on the issue.
“For the first time in a long time my vote counted. I feel strongly about that. Unanimously we put this new town board in and I’m expecting results from them. They know what the people of Moreau want, and the town of Moreau wants, we want to get rid of Biochar, simple as that," explained Toler.
Moreau United candidate Jesse Fish beat the incumbent Republican Town Supervisor Todd Kusnierz by a 3-to-1 margin.
Kusnierz says opponents of the facility politicized the proposal, and stoked fears of contamination unnecessarily.
“The opposition weaponized the issue of biochar against the current town board for political gain knowing full well that the Town Board—no member of the board had any role in the biochar project. We’re actually precluded from interfering with the decisions of the Planning Board. So, that being said this was a Planning Board decision not a Town Board decision. And this was the highest vetted project ever to come before the board,” said Kusnierz.
In an interview with WAMC, Saratoga Biochar Solutions CEO Raymond Apy and Vice President of Sterling Environmental Engineering Andrew Millspaugh said they understand that the proposed facility, the first of its kind in the state, may be intimidating. But Millspaugh says he is confident in the measures Saratoga Biochar is taking to protect Moreau residents and the surrounding environment.
“It's not necessarily specific to what Saratoga Biochar is proposing to do, it's that they are managing waste at a location that people just don't want it there. And that's, that's a hard thing to combat. Because no matter what you say, if it could be somewhere else, they would say ‘put it somewhere else,’” said Millspaugh.
Biochar is a carbon-based fertilizer that is created from the heating of biosolids, what critics call sewage sludge, to more than 1,000 degrees. Apy says this decontaminates the material of harmful “forever chemicals” like PFAS, which are then broken down in a separate incineration process.
He emphasized that they are not planning on constructing an incinerator and are trying to prevent more biosolids from accumulating in landfills.
“Maybe it's time for some people to recognize and at least applaud that somebody's trying to solve this problem, because that's what we're doing,” said Apy.
The proposed state-of-the-art facility would have a constant negative pressure system, meaning the ambient air from the biosolid receiving area will filter through the facility’s emissions control system.
Apy also addressed concerns over the trucking process. He says Casella Waste would safely ship more than 700 tons of biosolids to the facility through residential neighborhoods six days a week.
“In their operating record, which spans decades has had one truck overturned once those trucks are regulated heavily and they're specifically designed for biosolids transport and of note biosolids, is not liquid, it's solid. It kind of looks like a manure pile. If you dump it on the ground, you pile it up. It doesn't run. It's not liquid. So, can it leak out a little leachate? Absolutely that’s possible. So, those trucks are mesh lined, they do not drip, they are not allowed to drip,” said Apy.
Tracy Frisch, a board member of the Clean Air Action Network, has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the proposed facility. Frisch says Saratoga Biochar’s profit motive means community safety comes second.
The reason these corporations are involved with sewage sludge is because there's a lot of money in it. It's costly to dispose of. So, they're willing to take it and Casella does make fertilizer out of it, which contaminates farmland. And biochar claims they have this this solution. But when they've explained their solution, they used a lot of magical thinking,” said Frisch.
Organizers also have drawn attention to the project’s pending approval from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. But Apy says the company’s documents have all been submitted and added the “incomplete application” status is a routine placeholder that shows the DEC is doing due diligence.
