Section Branding
Header Content
Biomass Plant In Northeast Georgia Draws Complaints From Residents
Primary Content
Noise and odor from a biomass plant are angering some residents in a Northeast Georgia county. GPB's Sophia Saliby reports on how a biomass plant in Franklin County is responding to residents' complaints.
The Georgia Renewable Power plant in Franklin County burns wood waste to create energy, but the county declared the plant a public nuisance in December due to noise and emissions during months of testing by the plant’s owners.
Beth Thomas is the Franklin County manager.
"When you have that high volume of noise, devastatingly loud noise that many times at all hours of the day, it led to a lot of complaints," she said.
President of Georgia Renewable Power Steve Dailey said the company has taken the complaints seriously.
“I’m not making light of it,” he said. “You can imagine a steam kettle on a stove, how it whistle and make a noise? Well, multiply that out and it’s a louder noise.”
GRP has since installed silencers and said the sounds residents complained about should diminish now that the plant is operational.
There was another incident where runoff from a pile of wet wood made it into nearby water.
Dailey said wood won’t sit outside for more than a few days in the future, so this won’t be an issue.
Meanwhile, the county is working with independent contractors to do noise and air quality testing to ensure GRP has made the required changes.
They’re still waiting on results.
GRP also has a plant in Madison County.
An earlier version of this story stated that Franklin County was in Northwest, Georgia. We have corrected the story to say Northeast, Georgia
Secondary Content
Bottom Content
