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Springfield Health Board Urged To Review Biomass Project

A rendering of the proposed biomass power plant in an industrial section of East Springfield.
Palmer Renewable Energy

Opponents of a proposed wood-burning power plant in Springfield, Massachusetts have won support for a last-ditch bid to block the project.

The Springfield City Council approved a resolution calling on the city’s Public Health Council to hold a site assignment hearing on the project.

     Councilor Orlando Ramos, the resolution’s sponsor, said he is not concerned by threats from the plant’s developer to sue if the local health board gets involved.

"I am more concerned about the public health and safety of our residents. I am concerned about the asthma rate in the city of Springfield. I am concerned about the air quality in the city of Springfield," said Ramos.

The Conservation Law Foundation is challenging the state’s decision to give the plant an air permit. Local activists lost a lengthy court battle over the project.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.