Biomass giant sets its sights on California forests
Publisher’s note: Drax has proposed building a wood chip plant in Northern Lassen County.
Before Drax opened a wood pellet mill in my hometown of Gloster, Mississippi, I had no idea the damage they could cause.
Drax makes you sick. The emissions Drax projects cause cancer and heart disease, and having any underlying health condition makes it impossible to survive near a wood pellet plant. If you value your streams and creeks, Drax will pollute them. If you value your forests, Drax will cut them down. Drax says they’re only using replanted trees or scraps, but it’s a lie. I’ve seen full trees cut down and taken to the Drax plant in Gloster.
My name is Betty Ravencraft. I am 65 years old, and I live in Gloster, Mississippi. I was born in Gloster, I went to school in Gloster, I was on the town board of Gloster. Gloster is my home, but I just sold my house to get away from the wood pellet mill here. The methanol and formaldehyde and other pollution released from the plants has made my family and close friends sick, and staying in my home is no longer an option.
When I see what Drax has done to Gloster and to other towns like mine, I wonder how they are allowed to continue. How can places like the UK and Japan do everything in their power to protect their own trees from being cut down, but allow it to happen elsewhere to meet their demand for wood pellets?
Before Drax came to town, ours was a small community without traffic and with some nice small businesses. Since Drax came to town, Gloster has done anything but prosper. The mere size of the pellet mill makes it feel like our town is being taken over – the mill is so ominous and out of place. The roads are congested. We see logging trucks go by that remind us every day that, even in a place like Gloster with some of the fastest-growing pine trees in the world, our trees can’t grow back as fast as Drax is cutting them down.
Our community members and groups like the Greater Greener Gloster Project have been fighting this pellet plant for years. We’ve met with local officials, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, all the way up to the EPA.
We’ve asked for air monitors to prove that Drax is polluting over their limits at rates that make it unhealthy for our community to breathe the air. But so far, all levels of government have been extremely unresponsive. Our current local board has been no help either – they’re in close with Drax and even allow them to use the board meeting room for private meetings. The state and federal government need to step in to put a stop to this pollution.
Drax has made many false promises to our community. They promised to bring a hundred jobs to town that never panned out. They gave more than $100,000 to build a walking track in Gloster, but it hasn’t been built. Two months ago, Drax set up a $250,000 community outreach fund for the town, but for a billion-dollar company that has been in town for 10 years, they have given much too little, much too late.
Now, Drax is trying to take its business to California and Washington state. To all the communities out west, I say: fight it. You’ve got to fight these pellet plants from coming to your town and destroying the air and the water. You’ve got to fight to keep Drax from putting the health of your neighbors and children and grandchildren at risk. The true cost of wood pellet production to your community and health is too high to ignore. Fight it.
About Betyy Ravencraft
Betty Ravencraft, is a lifelong resident of Gloster, Mississippi, where Drax wood pellet plants have ravaged ecosystems and ailed her community for over a decade.
