Dec 10, 2007 6:02 pm US/Central
Neighbors Fired Up, Say Garbage Burner Idea Stinks
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
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Residents who live near the University of St. Thomas are protesting the project with dozens of lawn signs.
CBS
A plan to update the system that powers Minnesota's largest paper recycling plant is under fire. The Rock-Tenn Plant sits on 42 acres near Cretin Avenue and Vandalia in St. Paul.
Neighbors worry that one option for fueling it with renewable energy, a garbage burner, would be dangerous. Now a grass roots effort to prevent a garage burner is growing.
Residents who live near the University of St. Thomas are protesting the project with dozens of lawn signs.
"No one would listen to us so we thought, well, we're going to get the word out," said Neighbors Against the Burner Coordinator Nancy Hone.
A year ago, residents living near the Rock-Tenn paper recycling plant got wind of a possible plant to build a garbage burner to fuel the plant.
"A garbage burner five blocks north of my house and with the northwest winds, I thought well doesn't sound like a very good idea," said Hone.
The recycler lost it's steam fuel last summer when the Xcel Energy plant near downtown St. Paul stopped using coal. So Rock-Tenn is back to oil burners, a less cleaner form of energy.
"The port authority and the state are committed to find some other type of renewable fuel so that we will do our part to reduce the emissions of green house gases," said St. Paul Port Authority Development Director Lorrie Louder.
Neighbors around the plant fear garbage may be used in a burner, similar to one in Minneapolis.
"We will not allow a garbage burned to be built in the middle of a metropolitan area," said Hone.
They worry about toxic emissions although many other options are still on the table.
"The St. Paul Port Authority will not recommend anything that is not environmentally safe," said Louder.
An advisory panel will meet Monday night to discuss fuel options further. Later this week, Neighbors Against the Burner plan to protest before a Pollution Control Agency meeting on the matter.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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