Power plant foes are suing to pull plug

Power plant foes are suing to pull plug

Oct 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Paul Woolverton The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.

Opponents of a proposed $200 million power plant fueled by poultry waste filed a lawsuit in Sampson County to stop its construction.

The lawsuit, filed by a group called Citizens for a Safe Environment, says the Sampson County Board of Commissioners violated state laws when it voted this year to rezone 128 acres for the plant near the Faison exit on Interstate 40. The group is suing the county to overturn the decision.

Fibrowatt LLC of Pennsylvania announced in April its plans to build the power plant. Employing 100 people, the plant would burn chicken and turkey litter from farms in the area, plus vegetative debris such as wood chips and cornstalks, to generate electricity.

Opponents say emissions from the incinerators would pollute the area.

The lawsuit raises the pollution risk, but much of it focuses on the process by which the Sampson commissioners rezoned the land. It says the commissioners made up their minds before a public hearing, and that the decision was illegal spot-zoning and illegal contract zoning.

Spot zoning designates a piece of land for a use that is significantly different than surrounding land. In contract zoning, land is rezoned under a special agreement between the owner and local government.

The suit calls the rezoning arbitrary and capricious.

"They really did not follow their own ordinance," said David Mickey of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. Citizens for a Safe Environment is a chapter of the league.

Sampson County Manager Scott Sauer said the lawsuit has been sent to the county's legal department, and he could not comment.

Fibrowatt spokeswoman Kasia Wieronski issued this statement: "We are confident that the Sampson County commissioners have handled this matter properly and that the courts will uphold their actions."

The company plans open-house meetings Monday and Tuesday to answer people's questions about the plant.

The first will be 11 a.m. to 9p.m. Monday at the Agri-Expo center in Clinton. The second is 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Faison Fire Department at 108 S.W. Center St.

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at woolvertonp@fayobserver.com or 486-3512.