Biochar issue rages anew in Town of Moreau

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

The Biochar fight is quickly boiling anew as the new town supervisor Jesse Fish and his council majority took office in January in Moreau.

Saratoga Biochar Solutions seeks to construct a “pyrolysis” facility in Moreau’s Industrial Park that would turn processed sewage into carbon fertilizer.

Mr. Fish and the board majority, backed by many vocal Biochar opponents, won a landslide victory in the fall.

Last week, Biochar accused the Town Board of holding a “secret meeting [on Jan. 19] that was not posted…in likely violation of New York state open meeting law.”

And Biochar claimed that on Jan. 23, the “Supervisor proposed and Board passed a sudden motion to review town’s
zoning without notice on meeting agenda.”

Mr. Fish said the alleged secret meeting was an “attorney advice session. Perfectly legal for the attorneys to come here and for us to be in the same room. We can ask different questions and they’ll give us the answers to it.”

Ray Apy, Saratoga Biochar CEO, acknowledged, if “they discussed private matters where attorney client privilege was involved, well, okay. If that’s the case, then they have the right to do that. But it’s odd that they’re not giving comment or taking meetings with any reporters to discuss that or answer questions.”

Malcolm O’Hara, an attorney at the meeting in question, said, “Yes,” when The Chronicle asked if it was a legal meeting, but declined to comment further, citing attorney-client privilege.

Mr. O’Hara, a principal with Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart & Rhodes, noted that the firm has represented Moreau since 1998.

Mr. Apy said requests from Biochar’s attorney to Moreau’s attorney “have gone unanswered so far.”

As for the zoning review, Mr. Fish said Zoning Administrator Jim Martin “has been working for three years…on cleaning up the zoning in the Town of Moreau, doing a new comprehensive plan. Jim has spent a long time on it, and the only thing he hasn’t done yet is the industrial lands we own.”

Beyond the industrial park, Mr. Fish said, this includes industrial lands on the southern side of Exit 17 on Route 9.

“In order to do that, do a good job on it, we’ve put a pause on building,” Mr. Fish said, adding, “We asked for a nine month
pause. And if that’s what we get, then that’s what we get. If we don’t, we don’t.”

Mr. Apy insists the moratorium “is clearly targeted at Saratoga Biochar, but would affect other entities.”

Mr. Fish claims the pause has nothing to do with Biochar specifically.

“If you listen to the meeting, nobody said a word about Biochar,” he said. “Strictly for the cleaning up of the zoning and industrial lands” in Moreau.

Mr. Fish says, “Does it mean that Biochar can’t come here? It means that when the zoning gets cleaned up, if they fit the criteria, of course they can.”

He acknowledged that another nearby project, Bakers Falls Solar Project, is also “going to have to be put on hold.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with either project, other than the fact of once you put a pause on like that, it applies to everybody,” Mr. Fish said.

Mr. Apy said, “We already have a conditionally approved site plan from the Planning Board, we’re an existing project.”

As always, Mr. Apy maintains that the Biochar project is safe and rigorously vetted. He said he feels he is in “very good hands with the state of New York.”

He said with the Department of Environmental Conservation and oversight from the Governor’s Office, “the state legal [scrutiny] is unparalleled in the United States…It’s one of the toughest in the world.”

DEC in January released draft air and solid waste permits for Saratoga Biochar and scheduled public comment hearings “to ensure full consideration of any potential environmental and environmental justice concerns relating to the project.”

DEC set an in-person public hearing for Thursday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. in the South Glens Falls Senior High School Auditorium and a virtual hearing Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 6 p.m.

Mr. Apy insists, “I don’t have any ill will. I just am worried that you’ve got some new people at the helm there, and maybe they’re misinformed. They’re definitely misinformed….I’ve got to protect my rights, and I will.”

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