Monday, November 17, 2008 10:08 PM CST
EIU's eco-friendly energy plant plans again draw protests from residents
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — With a meeting by the Eastern Illinois University Board of Trustees looming Friday, plans for a high-tech, environmentally friendly heating and cooling plant again met with vocal protests Monday from residents of the Charleston neighborhood where EIU’s proposed Renewable Energy Center would be located.
At the third and final informational hearing about the plant, which would gasify small wood chips to create steam for campus buildings, complaints related mainly to residents’ fears of a reduction in property values.
“We pay a premium price to live in this neighborhood,” one of the residents said at Monday’s informational meeting at the Charleston Public Library. “It seems in some way we will make the economic sacrifice and get none of the benefits.”
Charleston resident Charles White took EIU Vice President for Business Affairs Jeff Cooley to task, alleging officials have not accounted for what White said would be a 15 to 20 percent reduction in the value of homes in “close proximity” to the proposed plant along Illinois Route 130 north of Edgar Drive.
“Eastern has taken the position of being far above anyone else,” said White.
The Renewable Energy Center would account for about half of almost $80 million in overall energy conservation efforts proposed by university officials.
The plant would turn “biomass” wood chips into synthetic natural gas by heating them in a low-oxygen environment. This hot gas then would be combined with oxygen and burned in a more traditional boiler.
In addition to dramatically reducing emissions, the biomass gasification system also would replace the aging, costly coal-fired plant currently in use, said officials.
Residents have spoken out against the proposed energy center at all three informational meetings. Criticism Monday zeroed in on the idea of installing an allegedly unsightly vertical elevator for transporting the fresh wood chips, rather than taking steps to establish a horizontal storage system and negating the need for the 120-foot-tall elevator.
Cooley said officials will look into this option, as well as the potential for orienting the plant’s main building to achieve greater aesthetics and doing more in the way of “tree-scaping.”
Residents also asked why the university could not build the plant instead on open ground near Lantz Arena on the other side of the campus.
Cooley and Gary Reed, director of EIU’s Facilities Planning and Management, said the proposed location would require relatively minimal underground piping to access the university’s existing steam system, and would also allow EIU to stop using Carman Hall’s independent boiler unit.
Residents questioned assertions by EIU officials that the project is truly “green,” or environmentally friendly.
“Who’s going to make it look ‘green’?” White said. “This is not a green project.”
Cooley said the timing of the project is critical, given the unreliability of the existing plant. It would take about two years before the Renewable Energy Center would become operational, and Cooley said he is not certain the current facility would last much beyond that timeframe.
The project would be funded through revenue bonds. The Board of Trustees meets at 11 a.m. Friday in the Grand Ballroom and is slated to vote on borrowing this money, as well as seeking bids for construction.
The state’s Capital Development Board, which funded and oversaw the multimillion-dollar expansion and renovation of the Doudna Fine Arts Center, would not be involved in this project, said officials.
One resident attending Monday’s meeting said, “How many people would it take for the board to (say), ‘Maybe we ought to study this a little more’?”
Cooley indicated the city of Charleston also effectively has no authority in this matter, although city officials have been consulted for several years.
Officials from the university’s “performance contractor,” Honeywell International, which is guaranteeing certain energy cost savings in order to help pay for the project, attended Monday’s meeting and said the Renewable Energy Center would be the largest biomass gasification plant they have ever undertaken.
Cooley said, “The university is committed to replacing that old power plant. We don’t have a choice. (But) Eastern does want to be a good neighbor.”
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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ChattyGal wrote on Nov 18, 2008 9:32 AM: