Biomass

Letter to the Editor;
 
  Let the facts be seen for what they are concerning Biomass in Springfield VT!
   The real issue around the Biomass proposal and the Winstanley Developers is not free heat or stoves or even the free candy that the Winstanley group gave to local the 5th graders at a talk this week in the local schools that encouraged the use of Biomass and showcased their proposed Biomass plant. The real issue is that the Winstanley crew is trying to buy our citizens into accepting their plans with these gifts. How old is that ploy?
   It is ironic that Winstanley would offer these incentive programs of free heat to 100 homes next to the plant and free woodstove (and that anyone including Springfield town fathers would buy into this plan) then turn around and fill our air with the very same thing the state creates programs to abate: Lead, asbestos…. and don’t eat fish in our lakes due to mercury…but put it in our air in our residential neighborhood for our kids to breath! What is up with that? This does not even include the additional pollution from the trucks in our residential community that will also affect our citizens’ health. Their free efficient woodstoves can not negate the damage this highly polluting plant will cause in our community. The traffic and subsequent upkeep of the roads will be our issue, not theirs.  
   I beseech every citizen to stand up and say no and to see the facts for what they are. Read Winstanley’s permit applications. Inform yourself through independent research. You may not live in North Springfield but do you realize this polluted air will not stay in North Springfield. It is every citizen in Springfield proper who will pay to maintain these roads and all for the end result of 30 jobs while chemicals spew into our air daily and we maintain the roads, clean up pollution and this does not even touch the fact that it is every citizen who pays for the incentives given to these type of projects via state government programs. The affect of this plant would be visibly far-reaching and invisibly far-reaching—right into every citizens’ own pocketbook.
 
Maggie Kelly
North Springfield VT