Next Meeting:
What: Continuation of the Dollar General hearing before the Planning Commission
When: Wednesday, May 23rd at 7pm
Where: Charlestown Elementary School
Read the post for a review of April 18 meeting by Town Councilor Bonnie Van Slyke.
Before the budget presentation, Town Moderator Leo Mainelli presented a history of the origin of the town of Charlestown. Leo read from the colonial act that divided Westerly into two towns, with one remaining Westerly and the other becoming Charlestown.
In this video noted biologist, Ginger Brown, describes why protecting the rivers of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed is important because they have the largest populations of dragonflies and damselflies.
In this video series, US Fish and Wildlife Service tells the story of the Pawcatuck River from formation to restoration. The Pawcatuck River forms the entire northern border of Charlestown.
EcoRI: “The solution is to site projects in places that make sense environmentally and societally. The current policy, though, is nothing more than a collective shrug and the repeated claim that it’s cheaper to cut down trees than redevelop disturbed areas.”
On Monday, April 9, the Town Council voted to authorize the Town Solicitor and other Town officials to take action to ensure the public health and safety of residents in relation to the 178-foot radio tower proposed for the DOT Salt Barn at the Cross Mills exit on Rt. 1. One of those actions will be to enforce the Town’s Zoning Ordinance.
A six acre parcel of wooded land on the south side of the Town Hall property has been offered to the Town for $75 thousand. The access to Puchalski Field, […]
When: Monday, April 9 at 7pm
Where: Charlestown Town Hall
What: On the agenda for discussion and a possible vote by the Town Council at Monday’s meeting is an authorization of the Town Administrator, Town Treasurer and Town Solicitor to take action to protect Charlestown with respect to the 178 foot radio tower proposed for scenic Rt. 1.
The last time fish could migrate unimpeded on the Pawcatuck River, the United States was not yet a nation. George Washington was a surveyor, not a general or a president. But now, thanks to The Nature Conservancy, the Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association, and other groups, the Pawcatuck River is ready for this year’s herring and shad runs — all 34 miles are passable for the first time in US history!
Town writes to FCC in opposition to new radio tower, citing procedural, environmental, and historic preservation issues.
The deadline to send your own comments is Tuesday March 27.
Before a new tower is located in this important tourism and wildlife location, the impacts to wildlife and tourism should be thoroughly studied. Alternatively RIEMA could find another location at a higher elevation that would allow for a well screened shorter tower with fewer visual and wildlife impacts.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the regulatory agency that will make the decision on whether to approve the tower. Comments must be sent to the FCC on or before March 27.
Changing the Charter as the CDTC suggests, to require the automatic appointment of the “next highest vote getter” from among the defeated candidates, is not following the voter’s choice. The voter’s choice can only be measured in an election, and when there has been time for a special election the voters have chosen to defeat again the “next highest vote getter.” We should leave our Town Charter as it is.
Now that the Narragansett Tribe and Invenergy have terminated their contract to truck water from Tribal land in Charlestown to Burrillville to cool the turbines of Invenergy’s proposed power plant in the forest of that town, Charlestown has lost its intervenor status. That is great news for the wetlands of the Indian Cedar Swamp and for anyone who lives or travels in the path of the proposed tanker truck caravan. Yet despite escaping this threat to our local roads and wetlands, Charlestown remains connected to the forests of Burrillville in several important ways.
Invenergy writes to EFSB: “the Water Supply Agreement between the Narragansett Indian Tribe and Clear River Energy LLC, executed on September 19, 2017, has been terminated and is null and void”
This story in the Journal Nature explains that the world is lit at night like never before, and ecologists are assessing the damage.
Locally, Charlestown is the darkest spot along the coast between New York and Boston, but we lose a little darkness every year.
Citing several concerns, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin today announced his opposition to the construction of the Invenergy power plant in Burrillville and his intention to seek permission from the Court to file an amicus brief in Rhode Island Superior Court challenging the plant’s water-supply plan.
Invenergy’s application calls for water to be withdrawn from the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed—a watershed designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as the ONLY source of our drinking water. This water would be withdrawn year after year over the lifespan of the power plant.
This is alarming because sea level rise and warming temperatures will affect Charlestown in particular during this time period because of our geology. This plan will impact our ability, and that of other coastal communities within this watershed as well, to manage these effects.
The applicant’s actions undermine the open, deliberative process required for public confidence in government decision-making. Please reject this proposed supplemental water supply plan because it is vague, ambiguous, misleading, unnecessary, environmentally detrimental and a risk to the public health, safety and welfare.
I am concerned about the complete lack of transparency regarding the contract between Invenergy and the Narragansett Indian tribe for water as well as the weak merits of the overall plant proposal.
The siting board should decline the Invenergy application based on the applications lack of transparency as well as the proposal’s lack of merit.
The Energy Facility Siting Board should not accept Invenergy’s proposal to withdraw groundwater from within the Town of Charlestown to satisfy any requirement for a water supply.
This application is before the Energy Facility Siting Board, but if it were an application before the Planning Commission, our Planner would stamp it incomplete and send it back to the applicant. The EFSB should do the same.
The following letter was submitted to the Energy Facility Siting Board on the subject of water withdrawal to cool Invenergy’s power plant, and is shared with us here by the […]
It is now up to Invenergy to prove that a dot on a map in a wetland is sufficient and environmentally acceptable. I don’t see how they can do that and hope that as soon as the Show Cause Hearing is held, the EFSB will require that the water withdrawal plan for Charlestown be removed from Invenergy’s application.
On Tuesday, December 5, the Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) held a hearing in Charlestown to hear testimony on Invenergy’s proposal to truck water from Tribal land in Charlestown to Burrillville to cool the turbines of Invenergy’s proposed power plant in the forest of that town. Hundreds of citizens attended the meeting, dozens spoke against the water withdrawal plan, no one spoke in favor of the plan. Many speakers asked questions, but Invenergy provided no answers.
Post includes videos of the speakers.
When: Tuesday, December 5 at 6 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.)
Where: Charlestown Elementary School, 363 Carolina Back Road (Rt. 112), Charlestown
What: The purpose of the hearing is to hear your public comment.
Who: This is entirely the Energy Facility Siting Board’s (EFSB) hearing. This is not a Town meeting and the Charlestown government has not been allowed to make a formal presentation. The applicant however gets an opportunity to present to the public and the hearing will begin with a presentation by the applicant Invenergy Thermal Development LLC.
Ideas for questions to ask the EFSB on Tuesday night are at the end of this post.
In denying the Tribal Council’s motion to intervene, the EFSB claimed approval of the motion would put the EFSB in the position of taking a side in internal tribal politics, instead they would just take the contract between Invenergy and “two members of the Tribe”, Matthew Thomas and John Brown, at its “face value”.
Since this November 27 EFSB hearing I have wondered what the EFSB meant by the “face value” of the contract. And what is that face value?
If things weren’t already complicated enough with the proposal by Invenergy to truck water from Tribal land in Charlestown to Burrillville to cool the turbines of Invenergy’s proposed power plant […]
Letter from Ruth Platner: “The Energy Facility Siting Act requires that the EFSB base their decision on a finding that the applicant has shown that there will not be “unacceptable harm to the environment and [that the proposal] will enhance the socio-economic fabric of the state”. With the facts of the water withdrawal hidden from the public, is the EFSB expecting us to just trust their judgment?”
When: Tuesday, November 21 at 7 p.m.
Where: Cross Mills Library (map in post)
What: Invenergy plans to withdraw groundwater from Charlestown and carry it by tanker trucks to Burrillville where it will cool the turbines of the proposed gas and oil fueled power plant. You can learn all about the project that will use this water at this informational meeting.
Who: This event is sponsored by the Rhode Island Association of Conservation Commissions and the Burrillville Land Trust. Burrillville Land Trust President, Paul A. Roselli will lead the presentation and discussion.
Thanks to residents of Burrillville who shared these two videos of tanker trucks carrying water to an existing power plant in northern Rhode Island.
When: Tuesday, December 5 at 6 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.)
Where: Charlestown Elementary School, 363 Carolina Back Road (Rt. 112), Charlestown (map in post)
What: Hearing to allow public comment from Charlestown citizens and others on Invenergy Thermal Development’s proposal to withdraw groundwater from Charlestown and transport it by tanker trucks to Burrillville to cool the turbines of the natural gas and diesel power plant they are seeking to build in the forest in that town.