Ever since the public presentation Adage LLC made in April 2010, their story has changed over and over. If it wasn't so blatant and serious, it would be laughable. One wonders, if they can't get a few simple figures right and they can't produce a coherent SEPA application with consistent figures, how on earth will they operate a dangerous and complex pressurized incineration boiler where they are required to keep close track of their emissions, prevent boiler explosions, ammonia leaks and dust fires in an explosive environment? At this point there is ZERO confidence in their ability to perform the simplest of tasks. Adage is a three ring circus hosted by the Mason County Commission court jesters. They all appear to be wearing clown suits.
Back in April they claimed 300-400 construction jobs. This is twice as many as Simpson says it will take to build their new co-generation boiler. Simpson says it *may* take 4 people to run their plant. Either Simpson is run by geniuses, or Adage is inept. Let's look into this Dear Readers. You decide.
In May and June, after Adage discovered Mason County citizens weren't ignorant hicks and could both read and do simple math, they began advertising 700 jobs in the Journal. When that didn't convince everyone, they inflated it to 900. Recently they submitted their SEPA (State Environmental Protection Application) to Mason County where the public could download each exhibit and examine their handy work. What a surprise! The cover stated they were building a 60 MW facility and the table of contents stated it was a 50 MW facility! We haven't made it to page 1 and already we are off by a rather serious 16.5% margin. Now dear reader, I'm no PhD, but I graduated high school with a 3.8 GPA and I attended college and finished a machinist apprenticeship, so I can do some relatively complex math, read blueprints and machine various materials to very close tolerances. I'm NOT a PhD but I have a calculator and English is my first language. This Adage SEPA is the product of THREE PhD's from the University of Idaho! I have to say, it totally destroyed my estimation of the capabilities of PhD's, or at least PhD's from the U of I. I'd give them a D-.
Now to the employment numbers. Depending on which page you choose in the Adage SEPA, the employment numbers can run in a rather large range as well. On page 1 the SEPA says "793 jobs created, with 450 people directly employed in the construction of the plant, plus 152 indirect and 191 induced jobs within the 2-county region." What's this 2-county region? Oh just wait! We'll get to that later Dear taxpaying Reader! For now, back to Adage's magic expanding employment numbers.
When we turn just three pages to page 4 it says "620 would be directly employed in the construction of the plant; the change in local employment resulting from the direct employment of construction workers plus the indirect and induced employment totals to 964 jobs." 964 jobs now! I think the jobs are starting to breed......like rabbits. They've been breeding since April!
How on earth can we trust these people to run a complex and dangerous incinerator right next to our children's playground and so close to our hospital and retirement homes if simple math eludes them? Are you afraid? I AM!
Now I'm sure you are dying to know about this 2-county economic impact region they weren't in a hurry to share with you. Turns out there is a good reason for keeping it under wraps, unless you were inclined to read the entire SEPA. They must have known only a few people would have time and if there was a problem they could simply run some more Journal ads, a few blurbs on the Mason County News web site, send out the mailer pictured at the top of this blog entry, and presto-chango, you would buy it all!
Ask yourselves Dear Readers.....how many union commercial contractors, pipe fitters, high voltage electricians, iron workers and concrete contractors do you think reside in Mason County? Do you suppose when they advertise "Adage will hire employees locally WHEREEVER POSSIBLE and will work with LOCAL CONTRACTORS" it is just more of their double talk that really means they will hire union workers from Pierce, King and Thurston Counties? Read on. The slippery answers await. You will see what Adage REALLY means when they say "local".
The Adage propagandists DO seem to be able to spend unlimited funds to try to fool everyone into thinking they are such wonderful people. Don't laugh! Either it worked on our Senator/Commissioner Sheldon and his naive partners in non-representation; Lynda Ring Erickson and Ross Gallagher, or Adage dangled some baubles, beads, shiny things and green paper in front of them. Something tells me it's a combination of several of these factors. From the looks of Tim Sheldon's PDC (public disclosure) it looks like green paper from timber companies (Green Diamond), Avista (Kettle Falls biomass), the Biopac and his longtime contributor and biomass cohort Bill Quigg. For those who are wondering, Mr. Quigg owns Grays Harbor Paper which runs it's own biomass incinerator and Quigg Bros. trucking, which somehow seems to win all kinds of Mason County infrastructure bids. Jobs like the highway 106 bridge and road and the Harstine Island boat launch. Tim even let's them use his gravel pit! Does Mr. Sheldon profit from these endeavors? I wonder, and you might too, does Quigg trucking haul biomass hog fuel? An even bigger question....will Quigg Bros. get the gigantic bids for the highway 3 - Johns Prairie interchange, upgrades to John's Prairie Rd. and Wallace Kneeland blvd. and the monstrous upgrade of the Hwy 101 - Wallace Kneeland and NEW K street offramp/overpasses? Do ask Dear Reader, do ask. We'll have to look into that.....
If I had known I could buy a state senator for under $3000 in campaign contributions and get him to completely ignore his own voting constituents, I would have been stunned. But that is how it appears Dear Reader. Who knew? I guess if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. Just think, if all of the 3000 voters signing the 'vote on biomass' petition simply sent Tim Sheldon a couple bucks he might listen. Do you think? I wouldn't bet on it.
Now, back to our two county economic region. In the Adage SEPA our Idaho PhD's confirm what the Concerned Citizens of Mason County and Incinerator Free Mason County have been saying all along. On pg 10 they say the vast majority of woody biomass is located in Gray's Harbor County (465,000 green tons) and 180,000 green tons would come from Mason County. For you math whiz's that 70% of the fuel located in Gray's Harbor. Back on pg 2 they tell us that "most if not all of the economic impact" of the efforts of the loggers and truck drivers gathering fuel will be felt where they live. On pg 10 they tell us where that is. "We assumed all logging and trucking operators reside in the county in which the feedstocks are found, and the Implan modeling exercise allowed that 5% of the feedstocks would come from outside the Mason County and Grays Harbor 2-county economic region." So let's be generous and for the sake of discussion split the difference and say 67.5% of the feedstocks and economic benefit goes to Grays Harbor County, 5% goes to Pierce or Thurston Counties, and Mason County get's 27.5% of the benefit and jobs providing fuel.
So the deal our county commissioners made gives us 100% of the cost of infrastructure....road building, road maintenance, social services, police, fire, sewer treatment plant and pipeline upgrades, water lines and wells, upgrading Wallace kneeland Blvd to make it "all weather", adding pavement to Johns Prairie to make it "all weather", 100% of the pollution and well over 100 truck loads of woody biomass, dangerous ammonia, lime and ash, and we get 27.5% of the jobs and "benefit"? Would our county commissioners make that kind of deal with THEIR OWN MONEY?
No wonder Adage kept saying it would add jobs "to the community"! Until we asked how many jobs would be directly in Mason County, which they NEVER answered! Tom Deponty, the registered lobbyist for Adage said, "That's a good question"...the same answers we got in April.
Now we know from the SEPA what "community" they refer to.
Dear Readers...is it starting to stink yet? The incinerator is still on paper and it's already stinking the place up and draining our county budget. Just wait until it starts to make your kids and the elderly sick.
Our county commissioners are busy cutting services to the voters and taxpayers to try like mad to balance a budget millions in the RED while they are spending your money like a broken water main on Adage.
Have you had enough yet? Don't you think it's time to send our irresponsible and corrupt County Commissioners and our big spending State Senator packing? If you don't stop them now it's all done but the singing. November is almost here.
The voters have some serious decisions to make. Do you like your town? Do you like the outdoor life? Do you want to be Shelton or do you want to be Tacoma? It's your choice Dear Reader. You can still give it a shot on the phone. Call your county commissioner at 427-9670 extension 419. Tell them you want them to stop spending YOUR money on a private company and you want a VOTE on biomass in Mason County.
