Three years ago, the residents surrounding Breasure Road came together to fight the building of the chicken waste processing plant proposed by Clean Bay Renewables. During the meeting in front of the Sussex County Council, we the residents were promised by the Sussex County Council that Clean Bay Renewables would have to adhere to very strict guidelines put before them by the county council as well as the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission in order to gain their conditional-use permit.
In the three years since that time, I have been by the site and they barely cut the grass, let alone started construction of the proposed facility. According to the permit, the company would have to begin within that time span. It didn’t occur to us that the planning and zoning commission would allow Clean Bay Renewables to get a free pass and pretend like they had begun work on the site and be able to move forward without any penalties. If any person in this community didn’t uphold their commitments to the county, I know that there would be consequences for us. As a proud member of this community that stood up and fought against this plant, I would like to say that I support Food & Water Watch and the Sussex Health and Environmental Network in calling on Sussex County Planning and Zoning to admit its mistake and reverse its decision. If Clean Bay wants to build adjacent to Breasure Road, let it go back through the approval process honestly. Any proposal to bring 300 tons of chicken litter into my neighborhood every day of the year should be debated thoroughly and held to the exact letter of the law. Unlike Sussex P&Z Chairman Robert Wheatley, I am unwilling to give “the benefit of the doubt” to a project that would expose me and my family to so much air and water pollution. Mr. Wheatley has proven that he is not for the average community member of Breasure Road and given leniency to the Clean Bay Renewables Corporation. We would just like to remind Mr. Wheatley that our memories are long and we remember those who work against the people they are supposed to represent.
Some people tell me that Sussex County will simply approve Clean Bay Renewables’ project all over again if it has to go back through the approval process, but I’m not so sure about that. I’ve heard from folks fighting a similar Clean Bay Renewables project near Princess Anne, Md., and they tell me that Clean Bay Renewables has revised its plans many times since Somerset County first approved the project. They no longer trust this company.
Clean Bay Renewables originally said its Princess Anne project would process just two tons of hatchery waste per day to make a small amount of gas electricity to power its own operation and produce a chemical used in soaps and perfumes. Now, however, the plan is to process 250 tons of poultry manure each day to extract a large amount of gas and generate electricity to sell on the grid. The Princess Anne project is now 125 times larger than what the county first permitted – that takes corporate lies to a whole new level.
Could such a wild revision of plans happen here? It sure could. These factory farm biogas companies have a history of revising their plans after the 30-day window for appeals has closed. And Sussex County definitely doesn’t stop big business from wildly exceeding their initial plans once they’ve got all their approvals. So, yeah, I want to see Clean Bay Renewables go back through the approval process. They failed to meet their legal requirements to start work on time, so I have a right to know what their plans are now, organize my neighbors, and fight like hell to protect the health and safety of myself and my family.
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