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Broadhurst: Revoke State zoning overrides for power station sites
Agawam, Saturday, August 12 (from a press release)- Owen R. Broadhurst, a State Rep candidate who lives in Agawam, expressed outrage over the petition of Russell Biomass LLC to the State Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE) for the right to violate the Town of Russell's zoning laws.
Broadhurst is the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for state representative in the Third Hampden District.
"This outrage recalls for me the nine year struggle in Agawam over the siting of Berkshire Power. It tells me that the battle to challenge the DTE's unconstitutional authority to review zoning codes and set them aside has only just begun.” Broadhurst said that the DTE is acting “as a quasi-judicial agency usurping what is and ought to be solely the preserve of our judicial system.”
Broadhurst called for a change in the utility deregulation law, to take the power to challenge or review municipal zoning codes away from the state's executive branch .
He specifically wants legislation passed to eliminate the second sentence of the second paragraph of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40a, Section 3.
"This one single unbelievably long sentence inserted into Massachusetts General Laws is what allows for the DTE to provide zoning exemptions to power plants masquerading as public service corporations. DTE has a terrible track record determining the public's convenience or welfare. Instead it has used this loophole to favor the poisoning of entire populations via the siting of pollution-spewing obscenities,"
The required hearings rarely result in any genuine consideration of community sentiment. Sometimes they have been chaired by persons later rewarded for their negligence with jobs at the very companies that are subjects of the hearings.
"The foxes are guarding the henhouse," said Broadhurst. "I remember well speaking out at hearings in Agawam, only to later find that the hearing officer concerned, a Mr. Rasmuessen, was offered a job at Berkshire Power. Berkshire Power's petition to set aside Agawam's zoning laws was the subject of this hearing. I believe I witnessed a quid pro quo."
Broadhurst plans to attend the September 13 hearing at Russell Elementary School. He will submit written comments and make them available for publication in local news media. "Community members themselves should control their community's direction in growth. Russell has determined that it seeks only for virgin wood to be burned in this glorified incinerator. Shame on Russell Biomass for trying to poison the people."
According to Broadhurst, the power plant would emit over 1600 tons of pollutants for the whole entire Third Hampden District to breathe and that it would remove 800,000 gallons of water from the Westfield River daily. "I support the Concerned Citizens of Russell in their struggle, and recognize the project as a major threat to not only Russell residents, but also to both of our beloved rivers and air quality throughout much of Western Massachusetts. This is a major regional threat to the public health and public welfare. Russell Biomass LLC needs to leave Massachusetts, and leave immediately."
Owen R. Broadhurst Candidate for State Representative Third Hampden District http://www.owenbroadhurst.org