Bad weather proved to be only one of many challenges.

“On a limited budget with limited resources, you have to change your plans to mold to the number of resources you have,” said volunteer Rob Goodwin, a surveying engineer who spent much of the morning tweaking the building plans.

Following a lunch of chili and cornbread, the afternoon was spent cleaning, sanding and cutting down plastic tubing. On Tuesday, a smaller crew regrouped and set up the hoop structures. Now, all that remains to be done is to put up the plastic sheeting and fill our greenhouse with plants!

“We’re hoping to start out with basic garden vegetables, and we should be getting peppers, cucumbers and a few other things soon,” said Maureen Farrell, part of the planting working group.  They made their growing plan under the guidance of a local gardener, renowned for the flowers he raises on his Rock Creek Hollow property.

While the group ordered conventional seeds, they are hoping to shift towards organic and local varieties. By planting endangered, heirloom seeds whenever possible, the greenhouse will not only provide fresh produce and flowers to Coal River Valley residents, but also preserve a small part of their heritage.

The greenhouse is being built on land donated by the family of a Community Sustainability Team organizer. The property, in Arnett, is fairly flat, close to West Virginia Route 3 and adjacent to the Coal River. The community group will continue to look for land in Whitesville, a center point of the Valley, and on the Clear Fork of the Coal River, so that resources will be geographically accessible to all area residents.

More photographs from our first work day!

Community Greenhouse

The sustainability team is aiming to build a community greenhouse by mid- to late February. They plan to start growing tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables, then expand in to flowers and ornamental plants later in the season.

The greenhouse will generate income in order to sustain itself and fund other projects, but profit is not the team’s first priority. Several different economic plans are being considered, including accepting work and material trades for plants. They would like to give a certain number away for free. (Money and economics will be revisited at the next meeting.)

Examples of hoophouses. We'll be building this model of greenhouse.

There are several prospective locations, including properties in Rock Creek, Dry Creek and Seth. A top priority is building the greenhouse on a main road– it will increase visibility and accessibility.

Design considerations include heating/temperature control and water systems. Wood stoves, thermal mass and thermostats are all options for the former, while water can be taken from the river (if the greenhouse is upstream from Sundial) or collected in rain barrels.

Coal River Crafts Brochure

There is rich history, beautiful scenery and talented craftspeople up and down Coal River. The community sustainability team is interested in producing a crafts & culture brochure that will be distributed in the surrounding areas.

A Coal River Valley resident's spinning wheel and wool (some of which is from their own goats).

First steps include scheduling a meeting of area craftspeople for March, researching grants and setting up a bulletin board at a popular local eatery to advertise crafts and skills. When it comes time to produce the brochure, the team is hoping that a local designer will work on it, alongside SEED volunteers.

Solar and Solar Thermal Installation and Training

Mountain View Builders, based in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., could work with members of the sustainability team to install either solar thermal or photovoltaic panels on a local home. The installation process would serve as an educational event for community members and local students. The cost of installation is $8,500 to $10,000, but could be reduced by up to 30% through tax incentives, making it more affordable.

Mountain View Builders works in energy-efficient building, geothermal heating, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic. The company’s mission is to educate others about renewable energy/energy efficiency and encourage folks to start their own businesses. The sustainability team is interested in meeting with Mountain View Builders to find out more about the work they do.

Snow on Coal River's Marsh Fork (Maureen Farrell)

All of the boards for the new community building in Rock Creek, W.Va. have been sawed, and construction is slated to begin in January.

Julia and I did the first follow up to a listening project with a local spinner, fiber artist and gardener. If she believed it were achievable, this resident would like to see a garden cooperative in the area and open her own yarn shop/cafe where crafters of all ages could get together and exchange ideas over homemade baked goods.

A group at Liberty High School applied for a grant through the Beckley Area Foundation to fund a community weatherization project. The Foundation, which supports a plethora of community initiatives in Raleigh County, is now willing and excited to explore the option of a specific sustainability fund for the Coal River area!

-Dea G.

Tour of Cox Enterprises' Biomass Facility in Campbellsville, Kentucky

Biomass is being considered as an alternative energy source for the Coal River Valley, although community members and organizers have called in to question its sustainability and viability. Below, in bold, are concerns brought up at a recent community sustainability meeting in Whitesville. What follows are responses based on our tour and conversations with Devin Ceartas, a longtime Heartwood organizer. The responses should be viewed as part of an ongoing conversation, not as hard and fast answers.

Would biomass lead to deforestation?

Logging has not directly increased to feed the Cox plant’s need for wood: The plant started as a way to productively deal with waste from wood manufacturing facilities that Cox Enterprises owned. Additionally, there are 312 sawmills in the 90 mile radius around Campbellsville. The plant only deals with a fraction of these.

Ground up wood waiting to be brought to the incinerators by conveyor belt.

Opponents argue that biomass plants have been known to spur clear cutting: “The use of what would otherwise be waste material by biomass burners increases the overall profitability of logging, and can make the difference in financial feasibility for low-value logging operations such as clear-cutting young forests. This financial pressure on wood resources can include increased incentive for highly controversial logging on public lands,” says Devin Ceartas.

How high is water usage?

The Campellsville plant uses a closed-loop system to save water and energy. Water is pumped from Cox Enterprises’ own lake for the plant’s cooling process and a special system catches steam and water for reuse. That being said, 9000 gallons of city water are used per day and must first be treated for chemicals.

Shane Turner shows us one of the Hurst incinerators, which turn wood waste in to energy. Turner compared the biomass plant to a "large woodstove."

What’s air pollution like?

Detractors highlight air pollution as one of the main drawbacks of biomass. When a feed source that contains chlorine is introduced, dioxins and heavy metals will come out of the incinerators. Because this includes a lot of common wood waste, such as switchgrass and construction material, chlorinated lumber has been processed at even the greenest biomass plants. A plant burning only non-toxic, untreated wood will still release carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates. This is degrading to the environment and to community health.

It is unclear if “green and sustainable” biomass plants only burn untreated lumber. The Northumberland Cogeneration Facility in north central Pennsylvania is a “clean wood” burning power plant. However, their PA DEP permits have allowed them to take wood contaminated with chlorine-containing plastics (PVC), which they did for a time when they accepted wood with vinyl laminate from a Proctor and Gamble mill in the state.  The PA DEP also encouraged the company to apply for a permit change that would allow them to burn tires. Northumberland Cogeneration tried this twice and were defeated both times. They now claim to only burn sustainably harvested, clean wood–but who knows what they’re really burning?

Leftover ash waste is donated to farmers or used to build road beds.

How about economic feasibility in the Coal River Valley?

The Campbellsville plant was affected by a downturn in the timber market and had to reach out to additional sawmills. The plant is in an area with an abundance of sawmills, so economic feasibility might be lower in an area where there is not a lot of wood processing. As we effectively end mountaintop removal, will we stop having cheap wood sources for a biomass facility?

Would it benefit many local people? Especially in terms of jobs created, and could local folks bring in wood scraps?

The plant employs 21 workers, all of whom have been there at least six years. How many individuals a plant in the Coal River Valley could employ depends on the size of the plant, which has not been decided.

Turner mentioned that his plant accepts wood waste from individuals, as well as branches and trees after storms. One challenge with accepting used wood is ensuring that it has not been treated by chemicals.

“My research suggests that even experts find it difficult to reliably distinguish treated from untreated wood waste — it’s much harder with used wood as opposed to new wood,” Ceartas says, although he recognizes that some test kits are available. One concern Ceartas mentioned to me is that most pressure-treated lumber sold before January 2004 has been treated with chromated copper arsenate, which contains arsenic.

- Dea G.

SEED volunteers help with the construction of a new community center.

November has been a busy month in the Coal River Valley.

The SEED community advisory team is composed of local residents who are working to realize their vision of a sustainable and prosperous Coal River Valley. Those of us working as organizers originally imagined the advisory team as a sounding board for work plans and ideas to make sure that we stay in line with their vision, but at the November meeting it became clear that the community team is much more than that. The meeting was a lively three hour discussion of potential projects – ranging from biomass energy projects to community agriculture – that could bring Coal River Valley residents together in a common pursuit. With that end in mind, the community advisory team has decided to build a community owned greenhouse and plans to break ground on the project in the winter.

We are moving forward in the information gathering phase for two wind development projects in the the valley. In the coming months we will launch a fundraising campaign to purchase and install a wind turbine in the 100 kilowatt range in 2010. In addition to this single-turbine installation, we are beginning to lay the groundwork for larger wind development in the future.

A Listening Project is a series of one-on-one or one-on-one-on-one meetings or discussions that are designed to gather information, create relationships, spark a proactive approach to the problems faced by the participants, and make new contacts for future one-on-ones. The listening project is at the foundation of SEED organizing. Just as the community advisory team guides projects once they are in motion, the listening project determines, and will continue to determine, which projects we support. We completed a listening project in which we met with twelve residents over the summer and fall, and have compiled information to identify the main projects to move forward with. These include the wind project, the community advisory team, a wood kiln and a new community center.

-Andrew Munn