Date : Tue, 23 Feb 2016 11:55:47 -0500
Great Mis-Adventure Solar Hearing Tonight
Six Flags Great Adventure will make one of its final attempts to receive approval from the Jackson Planning Board to build a solar farm and clear-cut more than 16,000 trees at its next meeting March 7th. By clear-cutting the forest, it will undermine the positive effort to reduce energy consumption. It will also have negative impacts to stormwater and endangered species. Additionally, there are many alternative sites owned by Six Flags that can be used instead of the clear cutting virgin forest. These include disturbed sites, the parking lot, and staging areas. Many Jackson residents oppose the clear cut and want to see Six Flags build solar on alternative sites. However, we are concerned with some of the anti-solar rhetoric is not factual.
“We need to tell Six Flags ‘Save Paradise, Put it On a Parking Lot.’ The Planning Board should vote this down to save the forest. It is good that Great Adventure wants to install a solar farm, but they need to move it to a parking lot, staging and ticket area, existing buildings, or other disturbed areas to prevent the clear-cut. The Sierra Club worked with Jackson to uphold the Conservation Zone in Court and implement a Tree Ordinance, but this proposal is violating it. The Jackson Planning Board needs to uphold these laws and block this proposal,” said Jeff Tittel, Director, New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need to 'Save Paradise' because the evidence clearly shows cutting 16,000 trees will hurt the environment and that there are other places for the solar array will go. It is about time the Planning Board woke up, deny this application, and make Six Flags put solar panels on a more appropriate spot to protect habitat and prevent stormwater runoff.”
Building a solar farm should be a positive for the environment and should not cause environmental damage in the process. The proposed location for the solar farm is east of the safari park and sits on more than 66 acres which is mostly forested. The area includes environmentally sensitive areas like extensive wetlands and headwaters for two category 1 (c1) streams, and steep slopes. These streams are tributaries of the Toms River. The site is also home to a nesting area of for bald eagle in addition to other endangered species who find the area a retreat from heavily developed Jackson Township.
“We believe they should not be allowed to put a solar array on a forest or other environmentally sensitive land because it will have negative impacts to stormwater and impact threatened and endangered species,” said Jeff Tittel. “The site that they want to clear-cut for the proposed solar is environmentally sensitive and contains two important headwater streams for the Barnegat Bay. Since this property acts as a buffer, the runoff from the safari park will carry nutrient polluting water in the streams. It’s not just the runoff from the safari park, runoff would also come from the solar farm and eventually deposit in the Barnegat Bay. We should not be sacrificing clean water for solar projects.
After cutting thousands of trees, it could take more than 30-40 years to perform the same job. Another concern is the forest’s ability to combat air pollution and absorb climate change causing greenhouse gas emissions will be suspended until the new forest is returned.
“Cutting down 16,000 trees, talk about a log flume. This will undermine the entire purpose of installing a solar farm. Eliminating the forest will add more flooding and pollution, since the original trees had the ability to absorb carbon and clean our air. This pollution would directly affect the Barnegat Bay, especially since the site acts as a buffer from the safari park by absorbing animal waste and preventing runoff. It will take at least 30-40 years if not more for the trees to grow back to their original state,” said Tittel.
This project will use Polycrystalline solar panels. When you look at their make-up, solar is 99.9 percent silica. Some hazardous chemicals are used during its production, but are not left in the panels itself. However, nearly all modules now use lead-free solder and all modern panels are hermetically sealed with glass. That means there is nothing to leach out or any real harm.
“We are troubled that there is a lot of misinformation and even false information being given about solar and solar panels. There is a lot of this misinformation is coming from websites on the Internet that are old, outdated, and exaggerated reports with no factual backing. The danger of solar by some Jackson residents is clearly being overblown,” said Jeff Tittel. “The amount of misinformation being spread regarding this project undermines the credibility of the opponents of cutting the forest that want to move the solar farm to an appropriate location. There are actually more hazardous chemicals in your cell phone, iPad, computer screen, LED television than a solar panel. If you have an old television in your house, that means there is at least 10-20 pounds of lead sitting in your living room. Experts even say solar panels will not support combustion of fire. This false information is 10 years old from some website without any scientific finding. What is even more concerning with this rhetoric is that solar is the most important source of clean energy that we desperately need to move us forward from dangerous fossil fuels.”
It is important to support solar because without it we will increase our impact on climate change and be dependent on fossil fuels. The New Jersey Natural Gas pipeline proposed in neighboring towns would do far more damage than solar panels will ever do. The pipeline will even leak methane, arsenic, radium and other chemicals. Without clean renewable energy alternatives, we will have to keep open Oyster Creek, build new gas power plants and pipelines, while keeping dirty coal plants in Trenton open.
“Jackson needs to turn this application down and make Six Flags go back to the drawing board. We support solar and believe it can be placed on many of its existing disturbed sites. There are many alternatives Great Adventure could take that protects this forest and water quality. They own hundreds of acres of parking lots and disturbed fields. It’s very easy to put solar panels above panels in parking lots, which will also help shade cars and prevent clear cutting. Solar can go on empty lots as well as on top of buildings. These alternatives areas would have much less impact on the environment instead of threatening environmentally sensitive land,” said Jeff Tittel, Director, New Jersey Sierra Club. “Great Adventure shouldn’t add a tree museum as an attraction with this proposal.”
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Toni Granato Administrative Assistant New Jersey Sierra Club office:(609) 656-7612 https://www.facebook.com/NJSierraClub @NJSierraClub and @StopPilgrimNYNJ on Twitter