12-1 Smoke Stacks

RESPONSE: 12-1

Invenergy Thermal Development LLC (“Invenergy”) would be willing to float a sight balloon at the height and locations of the two smoke stacks. However, the existing tree canopy in that area is too dense for a sight balloon to breach, without clearing trees.

A sight balloon may not be necessary to provide any additional information which is not already available. The Energy Facility Siting Board (“EFSB”) Application for the project included an extensive visual simulation indicating where the stacks would be seen from various surrounding areas.  There is also an existing cell phone tower located approximately 400 feet from the proposed stack locations.  This cell phone tower is 190 feet tall (or 192.9 feet with appurtenances/antennas), with an absolute height above grade of 769.7 feet, as shown on the FCC Registration for the tower which can be found at:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=2632611

The stacks will be 200 feet tall and the site’s finish grade is 575.5 feet, which would make the top of stack 775.5 feet, or 5.8 feet taller than the adjacent cell tower. Because of its nearby location and similar height, the existing cell phone tower serves the same purpose as would be served by a sight balloon in this case.  Any areas which currently cannot see the cell tower will almost certainly not be able to see the Clear River Energy Center (“CREC”) exhaust stacks.   

DATE:

June 13, 2016