If you want to get a parent or grandparent or taxpayer up to speed about the issues with the Christian County Library, this interview by David Rice is the perfect vehicle.
Not only does it give a short history of how Christian County citizen Mary Hernandez de Carl became involved in the movement to bring sanity to the children and teen sections of the library, but how the battle is going. Many very important points are shared.
Our publicly-appointed officials at the library continue to dig in and provide inappropriate materials to children. The staff seem to be creatures of the American Library Association and its chapter the Missouri Library Association. There is a lot of money and power behind the agenda to demoralize our children and destabilize our culture.
One person stood up.
Again, the Christian County Library Board of Trustees meets tonight at the Nixa branch at 6 p.m. Also, the Facebook group mentioned at the end, Pray for Christian County, can be found HERE. Also, We the People of Christian County was instrumental in giving a citizen's a voice in the effort to clean up the library.
The Christian County Commission held a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024 at the
Resource Management Building to consider a plan by Black
Mountain Energy Storage to purchase and develop a 34-acre parcel
for lithium battery storage.
Proposed Black Mountain Battery Storage Facility in
Ozark
(Click here
for public documents pertaining to the project)
$100 million project
Would be termed a public utility
Purchase agreement in place of 34.1 acre parcel
Development of 6-8 acres of the parcel
56 storage units, each approximately 8’ tall and 40’
wide
Able to store 75 MGW or 300 MWh of electricity (It
takes about 33 Mwh to power one home for a month)
Additional substation to be added
Nearest home is 525 feet away from current substation
New substation will be 600 feet away from housing
100 temporary construction jobs, not guaranteed local
Some tax benefit to the county, though not stated
No promise of local benefit on electricity costs
The meeting was
packed, standing room only.
Introduced to the
public at last week’s Christian County Commission meeting, Resource
Management Director Todd Wiesehan, gave a short update to his
presentation to answer questions he had received. Wiesehan said, “We
have gotten plenty of input,” and said there were some concerns
about siting, environmental control, safety, fire hazards, and
removal if the storage facility is decommissioned or abandoned.
What Wiesehan did
not say is that the community surrounding the proposed facility had
not been properly informed of the plans. Only seven letters went out
to the homes in the area to inform residents. Later, during the
public comment section, citizen Rose Bergman said she had personally
visited 50 households in the area to alert them to the proposed
storage facility. Additionally, the
county Planning and Development had been working with Black
Mountain Energy Storage for approximately a year prior to last week’s
presentation to the county commission.
A purchase agreement
was entered into since August 2023 that is open for three years.
Wiesehan went on to
say that the county has the authority to attach certain conditions to
satisfy concerns to the county order, if given approval. He said,
“The staff has assembled a draft list of conditions and
requirements that are intended to reasonably address the major
concerns which have been identified so far.”
He then went over
the types of concerns that had been voiced. He mentioned siting and
visual impacts, possible requirements to plant trees around the
facility to “buffer,” lighting requirements to aim down and in to
the site to minimize light pollution, site access (the developer
would bear all burden of that requirement during construction).
He mentioned water
management and retention as environmental concerns that would be
addressed, as well as erosion controls developed. The developer would
have to preserve existing wetlands (there are two ponds on the
parcel), and minimize tree removal.
Safety concerns
included a commissioning plan (fires and other mishaps can happen
when these facilities are newly commissioned), providing a
maintenance manual, documents explaining the design and maintenance,
testing, etc.
He also mentioned an
emergency operations plan that would necessarily include multiple
jurisdictions in the event of an emergency. Also a fire safety
compliance plan would be required. Not only would the facility need
to meet local codes, but also requirements that pertain to lithium
battery storage units, as well as specific training for local
responders. Security fencing would be required.
Wiesehan lastly
mentioned a decommissioning and removal plan as a requirement, with a
possible bond provided by the developer to cover the cost of such
eventualities.
The meeting was then
turned over to Black Mountain Energy Storage’s Carolyn O’Brien,
Director of Permitting and Entitlement, who admitted she was “not
used to talking to so many people.”
She said she hoped her presentation would alleviate concerns that
many people had expressed. The parent company to Black Mountain
Energy Storage (BMES) is Black
Mountain, a company founded in 2007. It is an Australian company.
BMES is based in Texas and was founded in 2021.
O’Brien admitted
that battery storage of lithium batteries is a new technology. “We
are on the forefront of the companies that have been created,” she
said. Even though three years is a short time, it is relatively a
long-time in the stand-alone battery storage industry, she said.
She next went on to
give a slide presentation of what the battery storage units look
like, their size (8’ by 40’), how they are not made to be opened,
and their batteries, racks, inverters, and fire suppression systems.
She mentioned the
containers were made to operate outside and in environments where a
lot of safety measurements are required. Fire protection for smoke
and heat, explosion prevention, and working very closely with fire
departments to ensure safe handling was also mentioned.
She also spoke about
redundancy designs, for instance if one smoke detector doesn’t
work there are backups to the system. She mentioned full-scale fire
testing that happens with lithium battery storage. She mentioned a
couple testing codes and requirements. She said that the units have
been tested thoroughly for whatever condition exists.
O’Brien said BMES
has a great team for prospecting and siting of these storage
facilities. She said she spoke with the manager of that team who
shared insights into why this particular location was chosen. White
River Valley Electric
Cooperative controls most of the power production in this area,
so when White River is at a certain level the reservoirs are either
released or not released, and that is what provides the power...and
that may not always be what is optimal for power transmission or
rates.”
She then mentioned that if our area was in a flood or drought
condition, there may or may not be a release from the dam. She also
said that weather conditions can determine whether there is a release
from the coal plant. “So, with a battery storage in this area, it
kind of smooths the curve. So basically it sort of flattens the
curve, um if you will, on the peaks and valleys you can get with the
energy production provided that is basically dependent on White River
in this area.”
What was not readily
shared, was that the company would not necessarily have or sell the
stored electricity to provide assistance, since the company would be
selling its electricity to many different grid customers. It is
dependent, of course, on the availability to purchase stored power
from the company that owns the battery storage facility.
Later, O’Brien
mentioned tax revenues. “The tax contribution, uh, we are an over
$100 million facility with a span of 20 years and...there is a tax
benefit to having [the battery storage facility.]”
Next, she mentioned
that the company plans on being a good neighbor. “That’s why
we’re here, we do want to be good neighbors. I know a lot of you
are concerned about that. We really want you all to feel like we’re
gonna come into the community and you’re gonna know what’s
happening and that you’re gonna be safe and, you know, you’re
gonna be able to enjoy the wildlife.”
She shared an
example of a battery storage facility near Austin, Texas to give the
audience an idea of what the facility would look like when completed.
She noted that the facility was very close to residential
subdivisions in the area, and said the company did provide fencing
and landscaping.
She said that on the Ozark project they are looking at 2028 for
commissioning, since the breakers on the facility have a 36-month
lead time. Additionally, there has not yet been any permitting on the
project, and O’Brien asserted there would be no impact on any
nearby wetlands.
Citizens were then
given time to comment and they had done their homework. At one point
the consensus in the room was nearly 100% against the project by
hands raised. There were citizens with decades of experience with
electrical power, software systems engineering, and real estate
appraisals among the crowd. Complaints and concerns were centered on
the following issues:
Numerous residents are in close proximity to the proposed facility
No nearby fire
station
Water contamination
from a catastrophic event
Citizens are not
seeing power fluctuations, as O’Brien cited happened in Texas,
which is on its own grid
Black Mountain
Energy has previously been fined for misstatements of facts,
according to a citizen
Black Mountain
Energy is a land acquisition company, a citizen said
Black Mountain
Energy Storage has 20 projects, four under construction, all
completed projects have been sold to other companies, including
foreign companies
No bonding agreement
yet available; incomplete paperwork available to public
Tendency of energy
companies to go bankrupt and leave counties/cities with costs to
decommission and remove (no money for bonding from bankrupt company)
Although O’Brien
said water suppression was not used to put out runaway thermal fires,
a citizen later cited a paper that said water suppression is still
the major component used to suppress the extremely hot temperatures
of lithium ion battery fires. The fires must burn themselves out, but
water as a cooling agent can prevent other units from catching fire
No answer on what
company is manufacturing the battery units
Springfield was
persuaded by the federal government to destroy their coal plant, and
electricity costs have risen
Public utilities are
hard to shut down
Rates of serious
fires, injuries, poisoning, and deaths associated with battery
storage facilities was cited by several citizens
The county planning
and zoning commission did not get a Department of Natural Resources
report, and relied exclusively on studies provided by BMES
The county planning
and zoning commission did not research the negative impacts of
battery storage facilities before presenting to the county
commission, or if they did, they did not present that to the
commissioners
No study of property
value impact
No special limits on
battery weights, possibly leading to infrastructure road damage
Operational range
temperatures: batteries begin degrading at 105°f
and become inoperable at 112-115°f. Conversely, at 14°f batteries
begin to degrade and become inoperable at -12°f
Battery
life span is often not the advertised 15 years, but anywhere from 5
to 10.5 years on the low end, with an average of 8.3-year span
The
advertised 55-decibel rating for sound per unit (temperature
control) is closer to 75
decibels, according to
one citizen. There are 56
units in the proposed
facility. A lawn mower is
83 decibels.
One
citizen claimed the company was operating in the red
One
citizen expressed concern that O’Brien could not or would not
answer numerous questions.
A
citizen said the current wind rating was not acceptable for tornado
activity
Another
citizen said all the risk would be on the county and none on the
company, since the county would have jurisdiction
Presiding Commissioner Lynn
Morris announced there would be more meetings to discuss the issue,
and that it may be months before a decision would be made on whether
to approve a county order for the facility.
The Christian County Commission will be meeting on Feb. 14, at 10:30 a.m. On the agenda is discussion regarding the selection process for trustees of the library board. Apparently the process from last year needs to be reaffirmed. Please support the commission with your attendance.
At their weekly meeting on Feb. 6, 2024, the Christian County Commissioners reaffirmed the process used last year to vet and appoint Christian County Library Board of Trustees positions.
There are approximately nine local county boards that are comprised of volunteers who serve the public in various ways, including on the library board. These are unpaid positions. Most of them are self-perpetuating in the sense that when a board position comes open each organization selects and vets their candidate and refers them to the county commission for appointment.
However, because the county library has been embroiled in controversy for more than a year, the county commissioners took charge of the process and eventually appointed two new board members in 2023.
(You may have to go to Youtube to view the video)
Citizens began petitioning the library board in December 2022 to restrict age-inappropriate, pornographic, and pervasively vulgar materials in the children and teen sections of the library.
So far, the library staff and board have resisted almost all efforts to have books moved out of the reach of minors. Monthly board of trustee meetings have seen increasing numbers of citizens commenting upon the issue and requesting relief.
Now that another appointed position is coming open (Clever area) in June, the library staff and other activists are most likely concerned that a new appointee would constitute a majority on the board and be able to make substantial changes to the library's collection policies.
The library's executive director, Renee Brumett, requested to delay the meeting to discuss the appointment process due to the MLA's Library Advocacy Day occurring on the same date. According to Presiding Commissioner Lynn Morris, the delay request came in late Sunday or early Monday before Tuesday morning's meeting.
The Commission, after discussion, decided to go forward. A motion was put forth from Eastern Commissioner Bradley Jackson, and seconded by Presiding Commissioner Lynn to continue the appointment process in perpetuity until such time as another motion was made to change the process. It passed, with Western Commissioner Hosea Bilyeu voting no.
The commissioners heard from citizens who were not happy with the process or the fact that the commissioners voted to continue the procedure from last year without the library staff being present. For the record, there are sixty employees in the Christian County Library system. Surely, not all of them were at the Library Advocacy Day or at work.
Let's be clear, the dissent is coming from people who want to continue with the library as it has been and continues to be--a place where children are being exposed to age-inappropriate books of a sexual nature, as well as indoctrination in Marxist ideology through DEI and CT.
They know that when the commissioners appoint another trustee, that the board may decide to make changes.