Environmental law group challenges Project River annexation, warns of pollution

From News Channel 9: A prominent environmental law group is urging Cleveland leaders to reject Project River, arguing the city doesn't have the legal authority to annex the main property for the proposed $11.3 billion development.

The Southern Environmental Law Center sent a nine-page letter Friday to Cleveland Mayor Kevin Brooks, the City Council and Municipal Planning Commission raising both legal and environmental objections to the proposed energy and data center campus. (Read the full letter at the end of this story).

The letter arrives as Cleveland prepares for a special Planning Commission meeting on Monday devoted to Project River.

SELC argues the approximately 850-acre parcel doesn't meet the requirements of the Tennessee law developers are using to seek annexation into Cleveland.

The property currently sits in Bradley County.

Earlier this year, Bradley County adopted restrictions on data centers that would make Project River difficult or impossible to build there as currently proposed.

Project River's developers are instead seeking to have the property annexed into Cleveland, where the city is developing a customized zoning ordinance known as PUD 77.

SELC argues the main parcel is not contiguous with Cleveland and largely falls outside the city's Urban Growth Boundary.

The group also contends the property fails three requirements under the state law being used for the annexation.

Among them, SELC says neighboring landowner Larry Ellis has a recorded easement through the Project River property to reach his farmland and has not consented to the annexation.

The group argues Tennessee case law recognizes that an easement holder can qualify as an owner for purposes of the state's annexation laws.

SELC also says nearby parcels being submitted for annexation don't establish the contiguity required by state law and cites neighbors who say the main tract isn't currently being provided water and sewer service.

"Because T.C.A. 6-58-118 is not satisfied, the City of Cleveland is not authorized to annex this parcel," SELC wrote.

The group then turns to the project itself.

Project River calls for an industrial campus along the Hiwassee River near Exit 33, including a 500-megawatt biomass plant and 1,000-megawatt natural gas plant intended to generate most of the power used on site.

Developers have said a large data center is the most likely customer, although they have not announced one.

SELC says the proposed biomass plant would be roughly five times larger than the country's largest existing biomass facility.

The group estimates it could consume enough timber to require harvesting the equivalent of up to 65,000 acres of trees each year.

Those are SELC's calculations, not figures supplied by Project River's developers.
The group also produced its own estimates of potential air pollution because developers have not yet released projected emissions for the campus.

SELC estimates the biomass and natural gas plants together could emit at least 8.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, along with more than 3,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and more than 800 tons of particulate matter.

Based on comparisons with federal emissions data, SELC says those levels could put Project River among Tennessee's largest stationary sources of several pollutants.

Project River's developers have previously described the planned campus as carbon-negative and say the biomass operation would make use of a regional timber supply hurt by pulp mill closures. The project's website says federal forest inventory data show annual forest growth within its sourcing area exceeds removals.

Noise is another point of disagreement.

Cleveland's proposed PUD 77 would cap noise at 60 decibels at the property line and require continuous monitoring.

But SELC points to developers' acknowledgment at a Sept. 1 public meeting that a sound study had not yet been completed.

The group says the combination of the data center, natural gas plant and biomass operation could create persistent noise for people living nearby.

Truck traffic also gets renewed scrutiny.

Developers previously estimated the biomass operation could generate as many as 548 logging-truck trips per day, while saying barges could take some of those trucks off local roads.

SELC questions how much of the timber could realistically arrive by barge and whether the Hiwassee River near the property can accommodate the proposed traffic without dredging or other work.

Cleveland's proposed rules would restrict log trucks to state highways and require the operator to make "commercially reasonable efforts" to move at least half its timber by means other than trucks.

The Wright family announced earlier this week that it would accept the city's proposed PUD requirements, subject to the final language.

Those requirements also call for a 500-foot data center setback, closed-loop cooling, at least 20% green space, continuous emissions monitoring for the biomass plant and no direct utility connection to the Hiwassee River. Project River's developers say the PUD would make those commitments legally enforceable against both them and future owners.

SELC also challenges some of the economic and technological claims surrounding the project.

Developers project 900 permanent jobs and say the campus could produce most of the process water it needs by recovering moisture from wood used by the biomass plant.
SELC questions both projections and says developers haven't demonstrated that the water-recovery system can work at the proposed scale.

The group's letter ends with a list of questions it wants city officials to put to developers, including how the $11.3 billion investment figure was calculated, how much financing has actually been secured, where millions of tons of timber would come from, how much water the campus would need and what air emissions developers themselves project.

SELC is asking both the Planning Commission and City Council to vote against annexing the property.

The Cleveland Planning Commission's special meeting on Project River is scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m. No vote is planned at that meeting. The city has previously said formal action isn't expected until October at the earliest.

Read the full letter from SELC to Cleveland & Bradley County leaders: Click Here