Concern for Bafflin Sanctuary in Pomfret Prompts Connecticut Audubon to Oppose Killingly Power Plant

November 9, 2016 – The Connecticut Audubon Society has called on state officials to reject a proposal for a new power plant in Killingly, near the organization’s Center at Pomfret and 700-acre Bafflin Sanctuary.

In a letter to the Connecticut Siting Council, the organization said it is concerned that noise from the plant would affect both wildlife and the 15,000 people who visit the Center at Pomfret and Bafflin Sanctuary each year. It called on the Siting Council to heed the opposition of local and statewide environmental organizations and reject the proposal.

In the letter, dated November 2, Connecticut Audubon Executive Director Nelson North wrote: “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 rely 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 proposal, by NTE Connecticut LLC, is for construction of a 550 megawatt dual-fuel combined cycle electric generating facility on Lake Road in Killingly. The plant would burn natural gas when it is cheap and inexpensive and other fuels when it is not. In addition, operation of the new plant would require replacing a 50-year-old natural gas pipeline that connects with the Algonquin Gas Transmission Company’s main pipeline two miles away.

The Connecticut Audubon Society is the state’s original, independent Audubon. In addition to the Center at Pomfret, it has centers in Fairfield, Glastonbury, Milford and Old Lyme, and operates 19 sanctuaries covering 2,600 acres around the state. Statewide membership includes hundreds of members in the immediate northeastern Connecticut area.

The Bafflin Sanctuary is managed specifically for the rare birds that require large open grasslands or shrublands, two rapidly declining habitat types. These birds include Eastern Meadowlark, which is threatened in Connecticut, along with Bobolink, Brown Thrasher, American Kestrel, Purple Martin, Alder Flycatcher, and Savannah Sparrow, which are all listed as species of special concern in the state. More than 210 bird species have been documented there.

The Connecticut Audubon Society’s letter to the Siting Council said: “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.”

The letter concluded: “Many of our neighbors in the Northeast Corner, along with recognized environmental leaders in Connecticut such as the Sierra Club and the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, are also making strong arguments against the plant. We urge you to consider them all and reject the proposal.”

The full letter is here.