It makes perfect sense to heat a school in West County with wood. Opponents would have us believe there are health risks. However, in Vermont, 30 schools are heated with wood chips, representing almost 20 percent of the schoolchildren in the state. The first school converted to wood heat in 1986.
Closer to home, Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner has heated with wood chips since 2002, and saves an estimated $300,000 annually. Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton has been heating with wood chips since 1984. In 2011 they won a national award in sustainability in part for their innovative use of wood chips to not only provide heat but also generate electricity. Would a hospital put its patients and staff at risk for decades if burning wood was not healthy? Would the cities of Northampton and Gardner, and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection allow this health risk for years?
Franklin County is covered with forests, and we’re surrounded by a renewable fuel source that grows. Alternate fuels like oil or gas come from greater distances and aren’t renewable. Electricity is expensive and often generated with coal (also not renewable) or nuclear power. Relying on wood to heat our schools and other public places is a cost-effective and responsible way to meet our heating needs and not rely on non-renewables from afar. Furthermore, producing wood for heat contributes to our local economy. There is a common sense solution to our heating needs, and it is in our own Franklin County backyards.
David B. Kittredge
Shutesbury