Connecticut Audubon Opposes New Power Plant Construction in Killingly, Near its Center at Pomfret and Bafflin Sanctuary
Statement from Nelson North, Executive Director of the Connecticut Audubon Society
July 11, 2016
The Connecticut Audubon Society is the state’s original, independent Audubon, with six centers and 19 sanctuaries covering 2,600 acres around the state. These include the Center at Pomfret and the 700-acre Bafflin Sanctuary, which surrounds the center. Our statewide membership includes hundreds of members in the immediate northeastern Connecticut area. We have been part of Connecticut’s “Quiet Corner” for decades.
Our organization has serious concerns about the proposal to build a power plant in Killingly. The Center at Pomfret and the Bafflin Sanctuary sit only a mile and a half from the proposed plant. Our concern is that noise and air pollutants will change for the worse the experience of the 15,000 people who visit each year. Noise and air pollutants are also a risk to the birds and other wildlife that relies on the sanctuary’s grasslands, shrubby fields, marshes, swamps, and forests.
The Bafflin Sanctuary was named by Yankee Magazine as Connecticut’s best nature sanctuary. It attracts visitors from across the state and New England. Yet it and the Center at Pomfret are predominantly a local facility. Schoolchildren from Killingly, Putnam, Woodstock, Pomfret and elsewhere attend summer camp and education programs there. Hikers and birdwatchers use its trails. Adults participate in our Master Naturalist training programs. Community members at large visit for art openings and lectures.
Many of these visitors come back over and over throughout the year. They do not visit to experience noise, unless by noise you mean the sound of Bobolinks singing in the distant fields.
The sounds of nature are part of the essence of a nature sanctuary, and our fear is that a power-generating station a mile and a half from the sanctuary will ruin that experience.
The Bafflin Sanctuary is also the home of several of Connecticut’s rarest birds and scores of more common birds. More than 210 species have been documented there.
Under the leadership and management of Center Director Sarah Heminway, the 700-acre preserve is a refuge for the rare birds that require large open grasslands or shrublands. Those birds are among the fastest declining species in the state. The Bafflin Sanctuary is managed specifically for them.
These birds include Eastern Meadowlark, which is threatened in Connecticut. They include Bobolink, Brown Thrasher, American Kestrel, Purple Martin, Alder Flycatcher, and Savannah Sparrow, which are all listed as species of special concern in the state.
They also include Blue-winged Warblers. Ten percent of all the Blue-winged Warblers in the world nest in Connecticut. Yet the population has dropped by 3.5 percent a year each year for 50 years! At Bafflin, they are thriving.
Research indicates what common sense leads you to believe: wildlife can be hurt by noise. It can damage hearing. It interferes with the natural sounds that animals rely on and take as cues to behavior. It can increase heart rate and stress. And it can affect reproduction and prompt animals to abandon their territory.
Finally, residents, community groups, and state and local governments have been working for years in this region to make sure the area remains rural. The power plant would be adjacent to a corridor of preserved open space that includes our sanctuary, state forests and state parks, and local land trust conservation areas. All of it is supported by the waters of the Quinebaug River. The noise and the withdrawal of water for the plant’s cooling towers will have a detrimental effect on the quality of the habitats our community has worked so hard to protect.
Many of our neighbors in the Northeast Corner are also making strong arguments against the plant. We urge you to consider them all and reject the proposal.
Nelson North
Executive Director
