Reprinted from The Trumbull Times © Copyright 2010
March 25, 2010

By Donald Eng

Sometimes the people speak loudly enough that even the government must listen.

Having done that, residents and town officials are claiming a partial victory in the fight to prevent construction of a fuel cell generator in Nichols.

The state Energy & Technology Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to include language in a new proposal, HB 5213, that essentially gives the town the additional safeguards it sought. The bill now heads either to the Public Safety Committee or the House floor.

"This is a big step, and it continues the momentum we have built up in the past few weeks," said state Rep. T.R. Rowe, R-134th District. "But we still have a long way to go."

Included in HB 5213 are requirements that the Siting Council, which authorizes placement of public utility equipment, must notify the public when such a proposal is under consideration.

The Siting Council also would be required to hold a public hearing before placing such equipment and would be directed to consider factors such as public safety in its decisions.

Currently, the only guideline the Siting Council may use is "environmental impact." Though the term "environmental" is broad and can include property value and aesthetics, among other things, the council has tended to apply the term in the strictest sense.

"Historically, the Siting Council tends to only look at 'Are you filling in a wetland,' and 'Are you cutting down any trees,'" Rowe said last week.

Packed hearing

Several dozen residents, including state Sen. Anthony Musto, D-22nd District; state Rep. Tony Hwang, R-123rd District; Rowe and First Selectman Tim Herbst testified at a public hearing before the Energy & Technology Committee last week.

The community group Preserve Nichols chartered a bus to the event. The hearing went into the evening due to the large number of speakers.

Musto said allowing the Siting Council to make decisions without input from communities was an outdated concept.

"We live in a time where we have the technology and resources to run the most transparent and participatory democracy in the world," he said. "Giving people a chance to speak about a proposal that affects their town, neighborhood and family is a welcome and overdue change."

Hwang focused most of his comments on public safety.

"This legislation language to consider public safety as it relates to fuel cell power plants is very important to the community I represent but equally too many other residential communities throughout Connecticut," he said.

The Siting Council needs input from the public, he said, "particularly as we weigh the balance between energy production facilities like natural gas hybrid fuel cell power plants versus residential quality of life and public safety."

Herbst, an 11-year veteran of Trumbull's Planning & Zoning Commission, cited his experience with the regulatory and approval process in land-use cases.

"At the local level, residents are able to appear before local land use bodies to speak either for or against a proposed use of land," he said. "They are able to present evidence, cross examine witnesses and build a thorough administrative record. There are public notice requirements that are also met at the local level."

So why, Herbst asked the committee, does the Siting Council not meet the same standard?

"That is unconscionable," he said.

And as the town's elected officials argued their case from a legal point, Nichols resident Anne Berte approached the committee from a teacher's perspective.

Berte told the committee she had come to Hartford with her family because it was important for her children to see the process and experience a united community.

"That is what is going on in Trumbull," she said. "I am actually grateful that I am witness to it and what an example it sets for my children."

Berte said the omission of public hearing requirements was a serious oversight.

"My children know that I may not always agree with them, but I let them voice their thoughts," she said.

She asked the committee to give residents the same courtesy parents extend to children.

"Give me my voice, which, by the way, I thought I had all along," she said. "So restore my voice, as it should be."