An organization concerned about the pollution that could be released from a Fibrowatt plant proposed in Surry County wants an influential state legislator to demand full disclosure concerning another company facility in Minnesota.

Fibrowatt is seeking to build a plant near Elkin where chicken litter would be incinerated in order to produce electricity. The Surry County Board of Commissioners has rezoned a site near the Yadkin River to accommodate the plant, pending state permitting approvals.

However, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League — a regional environmental watchdog — is seeking full disclosure of violations and enforcement actions against Fibrominn. It is another company plant operated in Benson, Minn., which is now the only poultry-manure incinerator in the United States.

League representatives say that since Minnesota law shields the company’s track record, state and local officials in North Carolina asked to give permit and other approvals for the facility lack proper information to do that.

They are enlisting aid to obtain the full disclosure from Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, who chairs the Appropriations Committee on Natural and Economic Resources in the N.C. House of Representatives. Harrison also is vice chairman of the House Energy and Energy Efficiency and Environment and Natural Resources committees.

“City and county officials in North Carolina must not make decisions about rezoning properties and supplying water resources and other infrastructure without knowing that the proposed incinerator would emit arsenic, chromium and other air poisons,” says a league letter to Harrison. It was authored by Janet Marsh, the executive director of the environmental group.

“We understand that Fibrominn information has been provided to our state by Minnesota with the provision that it be kept hidden from North Carolinians,” Marsh’s letter to the state legislator continues. “I request that you ask Fibrowatt to make these secret documents public.”

North Carolina’s renewable energy policy, as outlined in ratified Senate Bill 3, provides for the state Environmental Management Commission to have a role in deciding on pollution controls and other technological aspects of proposed poultry-manure incinerators.

To date, the N.C. Division of Air Quality has maintained that its agency has the power to determine the best available control technology for the plant.

However, the league urges that the Environmental Management Commission have a full public debate by holding formal hearings. Other states have protective technological standards for incinerators which must be explored, the environmental group believes.

Marsh said, “We are concerned that North Carolina officials may make these important decisions based on politics rather than science. The people of Surry, Sampson and Montgomery counties deserve better.” Fibrowatt is building plants in Sampson and Montgomery, in addition to the project planned for Surry.