Cricket Valley Energy Center discussed beyond the state line

SHERMAN, Conn. — With plans for the construction of Cricket Valley Energy Center (CVEC) in Dover underway, the Sherman Conservation Commission organized a science-based seminar “Cricket Valley Power Plant’s Impact on Western Connecticut” on Sunday, April 8, to keep the public informed of the power plant’s potential health and environmental impacts.

“Many people, not only in Dover where Cricket Valley Energy Center is under construction but people in the neighboring town, knew nothing of its construction,” said Johanna Fallert, who helped coordinate the meeting. “This was an informational forum to let them know what was going on and let them decide what they want to do with it because very often these things happen under the radar.”

The meeting saw more than 150 people in attendance at Sherman volunteer firehouse. The meeting also featured Courtney Williams, PhD in molecular biology and a cancer researcher, and electrical engineer and technical advisor Keith Schue as panelists.

The panelists addressed health and environmental concerns related to air and water pollution from methane, nitrous oxides and other emissions they say will be released from the power plant.

“It is very difficult for humans to grasp the scale on which gas power plants pollute,” Williams stated in a recent press release. “From the fracking well to the gas plant, this kind of infrastructure pollutes the air and water, posing significant risks to human health and the environment.”

She added that the tons of pollution released each year from the power plant will not only  put those with respiratory conditions at risk, but potentially everyone who is vulnerable to chronic exposure to the pollutants.

“Many people write off the health and environmental impacts of energy infrastructure with the excuse that ‘we need the power,’ as if this justifies harm to others,” Williams said. “But we have the technology to generate power without compromising human health and the environment. Renewable energy is becoming cheaper and creates many times more jobs than does the fossil fuel industry.”

“From every angle, this is the wrong project for New York, for Connecticut and the planet,” Schue said. “Public pressure must be brought to bear on Governor Cuomo to see Cricket Valley Energy for what it is: a project stuck in the past, one that belies New York’s claims of environmental leadership, undermines renewable goals and shackles New York to fracked gas from Pennsylvania for decades to come.”

Though the meeting was originally meant to finish withing two hours, Fallert reported that it lasted more than three.

At this time, the CVEC project has completed the removal or recycling of site debris left from the Mid-Hudson Recycling Center fire in 1996. 

According to Cricket Valley Energy Managing Director Anne Marie Corbalis, there are also 250 craft professionals currently working at the site and nearly 1,000 workers will be required to complete construction of “the highly-efficient combined-cycle energy generation facility” by the first quarter of 2020.

“CVEC will be one of the lowest-impact facilities of its kind, providing energy to 1 million homes, $4 million in tax revenue and significant economic development to the local region,” she said.