News release from city Communications Director Brett Broesder:
On Tuesday (today), Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch will join Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra for a tour of Hartford’s recently launched solar-on-a-landfill project. The tour comes on the day of Connecticut’s Siting Council holding its final hearing on Bridgeport’s effort to put 9,000 solar panels and a fuel cell on an old landfill in the state’s largest city.
Bridgeport’s Solar-on-a-Landfill Project
Green Energy Park is a project spearheaded by United Illuminating, consisting of 9,000 solar panels and a 2.8 Mw fuel cell being installed on an old landfill. It is expected to earn the city $7 million over the course of its 20 year lease.
“Green Energy Park will create up to 92 jobs in Bridgeport, and will power up to 5,000 homes with virtually pollutant free energy,” said Mayor Finch in his statement to the Siting Council. “This is particularly important since Bridgeport kids suffer from asthma rates that are nearly 3 times higher than the state average. But clean energy production results in less air pollution, leading to lower asthma and breathing ailment rates for kids.”
To view renderings of Green Energy Park, click here: bit.ly/1u7yP5V.
Green Energy Park has already received approval from the state’s Public Regulatory Authority (PURA), the Bridgeport Parks Commission, and most recently by the Bridgeport City Council with a vote of 15-5. It also has received overwhelming support from Bridgeport’s two state senators–Anthony Musto and Andres Ayala–and from three state representatives: Don Clemons, Ezekiel Santiago, and Reverend Charles Stallworth. Final approval from the state Siting Council is the final step in the process.
Click here to view letters of support on the Connecticut Siting Council website: www.ct.gov/csc/cwp/view.asp?a=2397&Q=547608&PM=1.
Hartford’s Solar-on-a-Landfill Project
The Hartford Landfill project, consisting of 4,000 solar panels atop a capped landfill, became operational this summer.
Solar power generated from the site is enough to power up to 1,300 homes.
“Cities can only become self sustaining if we have a strategy to make them affordable for business,” Mayor Segarra told the New Haven Register. “This is one step toward that.”
I would like to have Mayor Finch tell us about the 62 jobs he claims will come from this solar park. I would like the mayor to tell us what will happen when the protective barrier that now covers the dump is breached. I would like the mayor to tell us what he will ask the workers who are guaranteed to get sick working on this project. This lying bastard and the dumb asses on the council have opened up the people of Bridgeport to the potential of giant liability lawsuits all in the name of Clean & Green.
Interesting–on the record today, UI could not confirm 5000 homes would be served by this solar power plant nor 93 jobs would be created. Of course the mayor can say anything because he was never sworn in, so UI answers they cannot and will not verify the mayor’s statements. The official record of today’s hearing will be published soon–we have been sold a “Bill” of goods.
Finch is promoting “green energy” and how he is excited about its prospects, but yet last month he had no objection to the coal-burning energy plant polluting the air. Just so happens the energy plant’s owners are contributors to his re-election campaign, as are the owners of the UI. So I guess if you contribute, Finch will support you. And it’s obvious by the sweetheart deal Finch set up for the UI, he has future employment opportunities in mind.
Municipal Landfill Post-Closure Care Funding: The “30-Year Post-Closure Care” Myth.
G. Fred Lee, Ph.D., P.E. and Anne Jones-Lee, Ph.D.
G. Fred Lee & Associates
El Macero, CA (916) 753-9630
July 1992
There have been no significant new technological, social, or economic developments since the US EPA published those statements that would invalidate the US EPA’s recognition of the ultimate failure of the liner systems of the types being used today to “prevent” groundwater pollution by MSW leachate. In fact, as discussed by Lee and Jones (1992a), a number of professionals have reviewed the initial and long-term performance of such systems and have concluded that there is a wide variety of reasons for landfill liner systems to fail. Manufacturers of flexible membrane liners used in “dry tomb” landfills provide warranties against manufacturing defects typically for only a 20-yr period. Such warranties are pro-rated over that period and require the owner/operator to identify the site of imperfection and remove the wastes above the area to allow repair. No one knowledgeable in the topic asserts that liner systems of the type being developed today will provide permanent, effective barriers to leachate transport for as long as the wastes represent a threat, which is forever.