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Groton Ponders Data Center Challenge
Facebook’s New Albany, Ohio, Data Center : This is the image that New England Edge recommended the Town Council look at to get an idea of what data centers look like.
The Town of Groton is considering an agreement with a newly formed company called New England Edge that would allow the company to place a large data center on 173 forested acres immediately west of Flanders Rd and below Rte. I-95. A data center is essentially a building filled with computers that collect, distribute, and store data from its customers. Groton Conservation Advocates is concerned the town may make an agreement before they have seen a business plan or are fully aware of the consequences for Groton. The Council is under heavy pressure from the company to vote to approve the center at its March 8th meeting. Issues of concern:
Economic: The center is guaranteed property tax exemptions for 20 to 30 years. Is this in the town’s best interest? Water, electric and sewer hookups will be needed, at whose expense? The Council should seek answers to these questions before signing an agreement.
Environmental: Permitting the development of this property is a move in the wrong direction for Groton. The property is fully covered by mature trees and removing large swaths of trees goes against the town’s purported goal of not contributing to global warming. The town should require that the data center be carbon neutral. Numerous wetlands and vernal pools occur on this property. These need to be carefully protected. Data centers require huge amounts of electricity and water to run. Will Groton’s water supply be protected in times of drought from overuse by the data center? A closed loop water system should be used. During testing and power outages, diesel fuel will power generators which will pollute our air and make a lot of noise, so noise abatement will be needed. Will the two main pollutants on data center properties--diesel fuel and batteries—be properly managed and controlled?
These are just a few of the questions GCA has about this project. We will keep you informed as the project moves forward.
Expanding Passenger Rail Service to Reduce Emissions and Traffic Congestion
The proposal envisions expanded Shore Line East train service from New London to Westerly, R.I.
A recent commitment by the US Congress will significantly increase the number of submarines built at Electric Boat (EB) over the next 20 years. This means a huge expansion in the EB work force of 17,000 adding possibly as many as 12,000. Last year EB hired 2,000 new employees and plans to hire an additional 2,000 workers this year. Groton is working hard to provide additional housing to attract these workers to live in Groton, but at present 80% of them live in other towns. As this workforce grows, the commuter traffic on I-95, I-395 and other highways will grow with it, clogging our interstate and pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere.
Zell Steever of GCA and Chairman of the Groton Town Council’s Resilience and Sustainability Task Force has developed a forward-thinking alternative proposal for the region to get people out of their cars and onto passenger rail service. He has gained the support of the towns of Groton and Stonington, the Cities of Groton and New London, as well as Pfizer, the CT Commuter Rail Council, and our state assembly delegation: Reps Christine Conley and Joe de la Cruz. Reps Conley, de la Cruz and Nolan have introduced a draft bill to require a feasibility study and operational plan for the passenger rail expansion idea in the region; they have a growing list of cosponsors, nine as of this writing. A public hearing is expected this winter.
The proposal would use existing railroad tracks owned by Amtrak and the Providence and Worcester Railroad. No new railroads would have to be built. The proposal has two parts: it expands commuter passenger rail on CT Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Shore Line East (SLE) from New London to Westerly, RI, and in the future to Providence and Boston. The expanded SLE service would connect with a new proposed north-south rail service, to be known as the Norwich Branch Line, on existing tracks that run up the east side of the Thames River, between Pfizer/EB at the southern end to the south gate of the SUBASE on the north end with a possible future extension to Norwich. The intersection of these two rail lines would be at a new railroad station or platform in downtown Groton where the two lines run parallel. So, one could hop on the train at Madison or Old Saybrook and switch trains at Groton to get off at the front door of both EB and Pfizer, or at the south gate of the Navy Base (SUBASE).
Steever has talked with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, chair of the subcommittee on Seapower of the Appropriations Committee, about this project as well as staff at the SUBASE and the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments. If combined with a mixed-use redevelopment of Groton’s downtown, this project could provide an exciting redevelopment opportunity for all of Groton, New London and the region. Zell welcomes your testimony and letters of support when this goes to public hearing in Hartford.
Synthetic Turf or Natural Grass for Groton?
Turf is already piling up on the sides of roads and being stored on private properties throughout the US because there are so few recycling facilities and it is prohibitively expensive to ship them. Without any rules or oversight, disposed turf becomes the burden and responsibility of anyone who lives around it. Photo by CAMERON CLARK, YORK PA DAILY RECORD
January 2021 Groton’s Athletic Fields Task Force (AFTF) will soon be bringing to a close its investigation into Groton’s need for athletic fields and reported on January 12th to the Town Council on its findings. For GCA, there is no question that Groton’s 60-year old school sports infrastructure needs a complete overhaul; the question is, what kind of fields should Groton build in response to the increased demand from our school and community sports teams for playing fields?
The Task Force is recommending that the town build several synthetic turf (ST) fields in lieu of natural or grass fields. Approximately six ST fields are being proposed out of the 12 fields identified as needed. The Groton Middle School already has one ST field for a total of seven. Synthetic fields have proliferated around the country because they enable more playing time on the fields and year-round use rather than seasonal activity. But these fields come at a considerable cost.
GCA worked for over a year to secure passage of Ordinance #293 to Ban Single-Use Plastics in the Town of Groton. The fact that Groton is now contemplating covering acres of land with non-recyclable and potentially harmful plastic is disturbing. We do not oppose building the new fields that the town needs; we do support building new or renovating existing natural grass fields rather than synthetic turf because independent research shows that grass fields are safer and healthier for of our athletes and our environment.
GRASS VS. SYNTHETIC TURF SUMMARY Sources: Safe Healthy Playing Fields, Inc., TURI cost analysis survey, Environment and Human Health, and Sports Turf Managers Association
Costs: Grass Vs. Synthetic Turf ST costs more to install, almost as much to maintain, and has to be replaced once it wears out after 8 to 10 years. The worn-out fields cannot be recycled anywhere in the US, which creates more environmental problems and costs. According to the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute in September 2016, “in nearly all scenarios, the full life-cycle cost of natural turf is lower than the life-cycle cost of a ST field for an equivalent area.”
Maintenance: Grass vs. Synthetic Turf Annual maintenance- similar; long-term maintenance- far more required for ST
Toxicity to People, Kids & Environment Research on health and environmental effects of ST has focused mostly on the potential effects of crumb rubber, the most commonly used infill ingredient in ST. Communities are moving away from crumb rubber to alternative substances such as coconut and cork fibers and ground olive pits because research shows that aging crumb rubber releases many toxic substances into the atmosphere and water systems, endangering children and the environment. We understand that Groton used an alternative infill, “corkonut,” or cork and coconut, in its first ST field at the Groton Middle School. This infill is a welcome improvement over crumb rubber, but studies of alternative infills are not available yet. Over time, corkonut is known to turn to dust, blow away and float readily during storm events, fouling waterways with suspended solids and nutrients. Any binders/adhesives and biocides/antifungals used on the field will also end up in our waterways.
Injuries/Player Preference: Professional soccer and football players overwhelmingly prefer grass fields. An August 2019 sports medicine article found that high school athletes were “58 percent more likely to sustain an injury during athletic activity on artificial turf. Injury rates were significantly higher for football, girls and boys soccer, and rugby athletes. Lower extremity, upper extremity, and torso injuries were also found to occur with a higher incidence on artificial turf.”
Heat: Synthetic grass increases turf heat up to 60 degrees in the summer; natural grass reduces heat.
What do the sports experts think about natural grass vs synthetic turf? Sports Turf Managers Association: “The environmental and human health benefits alone make natural grass fields a desirable option when considering keeping or building a high school athletic field. The cost effectiveness of construction and annual maintenance only add to their appeal. It is important to have a complete understanding of the costs and benefits associated with both natural and synthetic surfaces when considering converting from natural grass to a synthetic surface. Oftentimes many of the benefits of natural grass systems are overlooked because of strong arguments and marketing efforts of synthetic turf companies.” Quote excerpted from an article titled Natural Grass Athletic Fields from STMA, the non-profit, professional association for the men and women who manage outdoor sports fields worldwide.
February 5, 2024 UPDATE Replacement Cost Triples for Artificial Turf in Stonington
Town no longer funding $1 million expense. By Carrie Czerwinski, The Day
“After 10 years of wear and tear, taxpayers will be footing the bill for far more than they anticipated to replace artificial turf on the high school football field.” Click HERE for the full article.
October 19, 2023 UPDATE Once hailed as a drought fix, California moves to restrict synthetic turf over health concerns. By Shreya Agrawal, October 18, 2023
“Emerging research is making it clear that artificial turf poses an environmental threat due to its lack of recyclability and presence of toxins such as lead and PFAS,” said California Sen. Ben Allen, the Redondo Beach Democrat who authored the bill. Click HERE for the full article.
September 20, 2023, UPDATE More on synthetic turf injuries!
NFL players union renews call for grass fields after Aaron Rodgers’ injury . “Yes, NFL players prefer playing on natural grass. It’s why the NFL Players Association called on the league Wednesday to switch all fields to grass in what executive director Lloyd Howell said was “the easiest decision the NFL can make.” Click HERE or on the link above to read the full article.
September 13, 2023, UPDATE Another article on synthetic turf — NFL addresses ongoing turf debate, rekindled player outrage after Aaron Rodgers injury— came out in a publication titled The Athletic. The injury “refueled a debate over playing surfaces across the league. After Rodgers tore his Achilles against the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football,” some of his former teammates shared strong anti-turf sentiments on social media.” Click here to read more.
September 1, 2023, UPDATE An interesting article, first published in NewScientist, was made available to the public by The Cool Down on August 26, 2023. The article is titled Scientists make jarring discovery while analyzing coastal waters: ‘We were really surprised that nobody had reported this before’. In brief, researchers at the University of Barcelona recently discovered, after seven years of analyzing plastics found off Barcelona’s coast, that as artificial turf breaks down over time, high concentrations of turf fibers from artificial turf made their way into the soil and waterways, contributing significantly to plastic pollution.
Ocean plastics threaten animals and ecosystems. For example, birds, whales, fish, and turtles mistake plastic for prey. Their stomachs can become lined with it, causing them to starve. They may also suffer from infections, cuts, internal injuries, and reduced swimming abilities according to the International Union of Concerned Scientists.
Artificial turf reaches higher temperatures than natural grass. It absorbs significantly more radiation than living vegetation, thereby potentially contributing to the warming of the planet. Read the whole article by clicking on the title link above.
July 9, 2021 UPDATE The New York Times did a study of synthetic turf in order to recommend to homeowners the best turf options available in the United States…. As their research progressed, however, they realized they “had serious reservations—synthetic turf can be a bad value over the long term, there are serious environmental problems to consider, and the costs to install and maintain any sizable, well-done installation proved so high that we concluded we’d be better off investing the money and effort in just about any other form of landscaping.” Click here to read the whole article.
Feb. 5, 2021, UPDATE On Feb. 2, 2021, GCA presented a robust PowerPoint slide show to the Town Council in response to the Athletic Field Task Force preliminary presentation to the Town Council a month earlier which recommended that five new synthetic turf fields be built in Groton. Click on the button below to see our PowerPoint presentation on the serious problems of synthetic turf and the advantages of organically managed natural grass fields. In the interest of sustainability, we hope our town will ensure that everyone, children and adults alike, will be playing on the safest and most environmentally-friendly fields possible. Please read our Letter to the Town Council below for more information.
Great News! A National Estuarine Research Reserve for Southeastern CT
THIS MAP SHOWS THE INITIAL POTENTIAL SITE INVENTORY
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management is proposing to designate a Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve (CT NERR) for a large segment of southeast Connecticut’s coast, including both land and water. Connecticut is the only state on the eastern seaboard that does not have a national reserve. GCA strongly supports the creation of a NERR on the Connecticut coast. It will bring enormous benefits to the environment in the form of additional research and research funds to study the issues related to our coast as well as establish an important framework to coordinate the related existing research, strengthen education about these important ecological areas, and share information on issues related to the reserve area.
What is an estuary? An estuary is an ecological term for a bay or a partially enclosed area where a river meets the sea and fresh and saltwater mix, often creating considerable diversity of species. Long Island Sound is an estuary. Estuaries often include marsh areas, which are important sponges for reducing the impact of storms. In short, healthy estuaries are critical for protecting species diversity and mitigating the impacts of climate change and sea level rise.
The proposal: The CT NERR boundaries would run from Barn Island to just west of the Connecticut River. Of the total 52,160 acres, 1,955 are landward, and much of that is in Groton. Bluff Point State Park and Coastal Reserve, Haley Farm State Park, Pine Island Archeological Preserve, and UCONN Avery Point are all focal points of the proposed Reserve. The proposed seaward areas comprise all Groton’s estuaries including Bakers Cove, Birch Plain Creek, Poquonnock River estuary, Mumford Cove and Palmer Cove.
The lead agency managing the reserve will be UCONN with a strong partner in the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environment (DEEP).
For more in-depth information on the CT NERR, click here and then go to pages 13-20 to read the Executive Summary.
Trees are Critically Important to Groton's Wellbeing
“As the biggest plants on the planet, trees give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilize the soil and give life to the world's wildlife. They also provide us with the materials for tools and shelter.” To read more about the importance of trees to our health, the environment, and more, click HERE.
GCA is a strong advocate for trees, unfragmented forests, and the many ecosystem benefits trees provide including carbon sequestration. The last 30 years of development have taken a toll on the number of Groton’s trees, and the remaining fragmented forests are in poor condition. A range of Connecticut tree species is dying from a combination of afflictions, in part due to climate change. Two years of drought weakened our trees, leaving them vulnerable to pests and diseases, and multiple major storms in recent years inflicted more damage on our woodlands.
Discouraging suburban sprawl’s clear-cutting and encouraging the preservation of old and intact forests based on sequestration science should be key to a sustainable Groton. It makes financial sense since trees are the only cost-efficient way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A peer-reviewed article titled “Intact Forests in the United States: Proforestation Mitigates Climate Change and Serves the Greatest Good” published in June 2019 in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, states that “newly planted forests require many decades to a century before they sequester carbon dioxide in substantial quantities.”
We are pleased that the current town council is promoting redevelopment because we are running out of time for development and forestry as usual.
Fighting Climate Change
Local: The Groton Resilience and Sustainability Task Force
February 2021 The Task Force has developed and presented to the Town Council on specific action recommendations the Town should take to become more resilient to the effects of climate change. These include how to fulfill the state’s mandate to plan for 20 inches of sea-level rise by 2050 and how Groton can meet the state mandate to have 40% of electrical energy generated from renewable sources by 2040.
The Task Force notes that the Town has already made substantial progress during the last 15 years, including: installing energy-efficient lighting in many town schools and town buildings; increasing use of energy efficient hybrid automobiles; supporting recycling activities; including climate, resilience and sustainability concepts in various community documents, i.e. the Plan of Conservation and Development; and revising Town zoning regulations to better reflect climate, resilience and sustainability concerns.
This, of course, is just the start of what needs to be done. First, GCA and the Task Force are strongly recommending that the Town hire a full-time experienced director to manage Groton’s evolution into an energy-efficient town to mitigate the impacts of climate change while making the community more resilient. Much more can be done to promote solar installation on the new schools being proposed and built. We need vehicle-fleet conversion to electric, and revised zoning in our coastal and flood-prone areas. Rising temperatures that increase tick populations and help spread infectious disease are a threat to public health and need to be addressed. Downtown Mystic needs a serious evaluation of how to cope with a 20” sea-level rise by 2050. (Click here for a 2012 NYTimes video showing the convergence of Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge + a full moon tide in Mystic.) These are issues the Task Force will be assisting the Town in addressing over the next year.
State: Environmental Legislation Update and the Governor’s Council on Climate Change
As usual, the legislature convened in early January for what is known as the “long session” during which legislators have more ability to introduce new legislation. However, given COVID-19 it is likely to be an anything-but-usual session and one that is more focused on a few big issues including addressing the state’s current solid waste system’s serious shortcomings.
GCA will monitor the progress of several bills legislators and the Governor have proposed that would expand renewable generation, efficiency, and benefit the town and its residents. In somewhat of a surprise, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) has proposed a financial construct for solar projects that enables a continuation of the existing net metering system that GCA supports as well as a new tariff construct that the utilities favor. See Jan Spiegel’s article in the CT Mirror.
Members of GCA have continued to follow the work of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3) as its subject matter working groups have regularly met through Zoom. In January of 2021, the Council issued a Phase 1 Report: Near-Term Actions that highlights near term (2021-2) strategies to mitigate climate change impacts and, to a lesser degree, actions to make Connecticut more resilient in the face of them. Those recommendations begin on page 31 in the report titled: Taking Action on Climate Change and Building a More Resilient Connecticut for All.
Specifically the Governor has proposed three bills that address climate and energy issues:
An Act Concerning Transportation-Related Carbon Emissions; An Act Concerning Climate Change Adaptation; An Act Concerning Climate Change Mitigation and Home Energy Affordability
Energy Legislation that GCA was monitoring died when the legislature adjourned due to COVID 19. To some extent the Value of Distributed Generation study is continuing at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (DOCKET NO. 19-06-29) and although there have been no meetings since early March, a motion by advocates to ensure transparency by forbidding DEEP and PURA from engaging in ex parte communications succeeded.
On the national level, the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) has petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to set national standards for how owners of distributed generation like solar and wind are compensated thereby preempting existing state net metering provisions in 41 states, including those in Connecticut that are under review in the PURA docket referred to above. Click here for more information.
Climate Change Task Force
Groton Conservation Advocates members met with Mayor Granatosky early in 2019 to request that a new committee on climate resiliency be established to review the town’s earlier (2014) resiliency work, access updated research and information from CIRCA and CT DEEP, and use such to advise the town as to what the impacts of climate change are likely to be and ways in which the town could act to mitigate them. On February 20, 2019, the Town Council acted to create the Groton Resiliency and Sustainability Task Force, and five citizens from the town were appointed to the Task Force in March: Frank Bohlen, Sarah Kelly, Jessie Stratton, Zell Steever and Victor Villagra. The Groton Resilience and Sustainability Task Force held its first meeting on April 24, 2019. Zell Steever was appointed president by Mayor Granatosky.