JOSEPH B. NADEAU, Woonsocket Call Staff Writer July 28, 2001

NORTH SMITHFIELD -- The state Energy Facility Siting Board yesterday gave Indeck Energy Services Inc. what appeared to be a final opportunity to answer questions about potential industrial development near its proposed 350-megawatt power plant. The three-member panel ordered the Buffalo Grove, Ill., company to provide a copy of its purchase and sales agreement for the proposed plant site near Slatersville Reservoir and also ordered the company to prepare environmental impact modeling for expanded industrial uses at the site.

Indeck has an agreement to purchase land for the plant from the Tuspani Water Co., a Rhode Island corporation based in North Smithfield and headed by Robert W. Kimball of Mendon, Mass.

The plant would be located on about 23 acres of the 70 to 80 acres Tupsani owns near the reservoir off Route 102.

Yesterday's requests from the siting board came out of frustration over Indeck and Kimball's reluctance to answer repeated requests for more information about abutting development, according to panel members.

"We are also very concerned that information is coming out gradually and the more information we find out the more we find we don't know," said Elia Germani, siting board chairman.

While Indeck's legal counsel yesterday continued to maintain the company was not a party to possible industrial development on land abutting its proposed plant, Germani said the board did "anticipate some type of industrial development going in there."

As a result, the panel would be formally requesting in writing that Indeck provide impact models on a variety of industrial uses that could be located next to the plant, Germani said.

"And if that information is not provided then quite frankly we will have to address the issue of whether we will dismiss the application," he said.

Robert K. Griffith Jr., who serves on the board with Germani and Jan Reitsma, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, echoed Germani's concerns over the lack of answers.

"My level of frustration in this has exceeded reason," Griffith said of the board's yearlong review of Indeck's application.

The panel bases decisions on three issues, Griffith said, the need for a power plant, the environmental impact and the socioeconomic impact.

Indeck's failure to provide the requested information on possible expansion of the industrial use has hindered that process, he said.

"I can't at this point make a judgement on the latter two," Griffith said.

The discussion followed the board's airing of a request by the town's attorney, W. Mark Russo, to dismiss the application over the lack of information on expanded development at the site.

At a June meeting, the board's legal counsel, Adrienne G. Southgate requested that Indeck provide more information on comments made by Kimball's attorney, Paul P. Baillargeon, also counsel for Indeck, that negotiations were under way for additional development at the site.

The request resulted in Kimball meeting with attorneys representing Indeck, and opponents of the plant, including the town, Burrillville and the attorney general's office, for formal questioning on the topic.

That session also failed to reveal the requested information after Kimball declined to answer many questions on the grounds they pertained to "confidential" information," Russo noted.

"Mr. Kimball comes along and enlightens us that it is still on the table and we try to dig a little deeper and get stonewalled," Russo said.

Indeck, at the same time, declined to be "forthcoming and say here's everything we know about it so you can assess it," Russo said. "They say we don't know anything about it, it's not our development."

Indeck's attorney at the hearing, Roger C. Ross, said Kimball declined comment on the matters such as the purchase and sales agreement between the companies on the grounds "that if you say a little bit, you say it all."

He also did not offer specifics on any future plans for his remaining land around the plant site because those plans could not be finalized without a ruling on the power plant proposal, he said.

"He said I'm doing absolutely nothing on the rest of the land until the board rules on Indeck's proposal," Ross said.

Germani said the board will take up its request for additional information on Tuesday. Ross said he expects his client to provide information on the purchase and sales on Monday and will also inform Indeck of the board's request for additional impact monitoring.

ŠThe Call 2001

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