Wayne Auto Spa

For those not yet acquainted with us and the story of our quest to install a wind turbine at our car wash/quick lube in New Jersey, here’s a brief summary.

An environmentally friendly car wash? Yes, it’s true. In Wayne, NJ, our car wash uses solar panels to create clean electricity; cleanly burns used motor oil in special furnaces to heat our facility; recycles our water; uses bio-degradeable soaps; and uses energy efficient lighting. Recognized by NJ’s governor with the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence and by the NJ state legislature for environmental leadership, Wayne Auto Spa is an early adopter of green technologies and a small business environmental leader.

For two years, we have been trying to work with Wayne Township officials to get permission to build a wind turbine on our property to generate more clean electricity from renewable resources. Our efforts have been frustrating. 

The local town leadership made it clear prior to our filing that they oppose this green addition to our property, primarily on the grounds of aesthetics. They also made it clear that we would bear the burden of proving that the turbine would be safe for people, would be quiet, wouldn’t fling ice at people or structures, wouldn’t kill birds, etc. However, there are wind turbines aside more than 80 schools in 23 states in America. They haven’t thrown ice or otherwise hurt anyone. Here are some links to turbines at schools:

• Link 1
• Link 2
• Link 3

There’s even a windmill at a McDonalds.

Wind turbines don’t kill any more birds than other stationery objects (and the Audubon Society agrees).

And they are so quiet that they stay well within state noise limitations imposed by statute.

Let’s remember our site, too. As fond as I am of my business, it’s a car wash – not Yosemite. We are a car wash on 2+ acres on a four-lane county highway (loud) in a commercial zone that has a spaghetti mess of above-ground utility wires, transformers and telephone poles (less than attractive). The property is flanked by a body shop and a day care center. Across the street is a convenience store. Behind us is a hill atop which are about a dozen homes – the closest is about 500 feet from the proposed structure. These homes have a 6-month view (i.e., while the leaves on the trees are down) and that view right now includes our car wash, and a 63 foot tall flagpole.

Our proposed turbine would sit atop a 120 foot tall lattice tower and would have 3 eleven foot blades. The State of New Jersey has its Customer Onsite Renewable Energy Program, which provides partial funding for renewable energy projects. This program seeks to implement public policy favoring renewable energy. Our turbine has been approved for partial funding of this program to the tune of $50,000. That leaves us with about $30,000 left to buy the turbine and who knows how much to fund a protracted legal process. We’ve already spent upwards of $25,000.

We think that the resistance to our proposal is largely a function of fear — that neighboring property values might be impacted by our turbine.

If every Planning Board/Zoning Board in the country needs to have hearings on these same issues over and over, we will waste a huge amount of time and money. This of course will strongly discourage folks from trying to adopt this technology – contrary to overwhelming federal and state public policy.  (New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law even lists the incorporation of renewable energy into land use as one of its goals!)

In fact, we think that federal legislation needs to be adopted to establish clear rules for small wind turbine siting that binds municipalities and landowners throughout the country. That’s how cell towers were handled — with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. (Ironically, I have been advised by Township officials that if I want a cell tower, they can only tell me what color to make it — yet they can block wind turbines!)

We think energy and environmental issues facing us all are too important to let this issue fade away. Yet we cannot afford to finance what will no doubt be a protracted legal battle. One fall back we are considering is to put up a 50-foot tower behind the setback line. Since the turbine is a permitted use in this zone, and this would comply with the relevant zoning ordinances, we cannot be rightfully denied. Sadly, we’d be making a point & not much electricity. But at least folks would learn that wind turbines don’t explode, don’t fall down, aren’t deafening and so on. Maybe this is the best we can do for now.

We’ve gotten lots of press coverage on this issue. Here are a few links.:

• Here’s how the New York Times covered it
• Check out the posts following this reprint story
• Check out what’s being said on the Wayne, NJ forum on www.nj.com
• A story from The Record
• We were also featured in a radio broadcast on Air America Radio and have been invited back this Saturday to tape another segment. As soon as show transcripts or audio files are available, we’ll post links to them.

Let us know what you think. If you want to help, we’ve added PayPal buttons on the left side of this page — you can donate $5/$25/$100 to help us finance our efforts if you want to. Any excess funds will be donated to the NJ Environmental Lobby.

We want to thank everyone for their support, donations and comments.

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The most active discussion on line has been at http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/wind_turbine_plan_draws_frowns.html and also  http://www.nj.com/forums/wayne.  See what people are saying about the wind turbine.  My user name on the forum is WayneAutoSpa.  Check it out.  I guarantee you are surprised.

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The media coverage of the wind turbine battle has drawn a lot of attention.  Many folks have asked if they can help.  Out of nowhere, someone sent a check for $1,000 to help fund the legal process.  This process is very expensive & the Planning Board is entirely capable of ensuring that the expense becomes so great that we have no choice but to withdraw the application.

Given the outpouring from concerned folks around the world, we have set up three buttons on the left side of our web page to enable you to donate $5/$25/$100 to help fund the wind turbine process.  All donations are greatly appreciated and will be used solely to pay for services required to get a wind turbine.  Any funds raised in excess of the cost of those services will be donated to the New Jersey Environmental Lobby.

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement — without it, we’d probably have halted the process by now.

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Our variance application for our wind turbine is now on the Wayne Township Planning Board calendar for Monday, February 11, at 7:45 pm.  The address for the Municipal Building is 475 Valley Road, Wayne, NJ 07470.

We encourage our supporters to attend.  If you do attend, try to find something that’s green to wear to demonstrate your support.  Remember, there are a few outspoken opponents of this project — expect them to be there too.  Let’s make sure we behave respectfully while maintaining firm positions.  We’re all neighbors, after all.

See you at the hearing.

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Yes, its true. Wayne Township officials have been quite enthusiastic about cell towers here in Wayne.  Well, not all cell towers.  Only the ones that are located on Township-owned property that generate lease revenue for the Township.  Like the one on Nellis Drive proudly boasted about on www.waynetownship.com for the entire year of 2007.

Yet these same folks are against the wind turbine project we are pursuing here at our car wash.

Tough to reconcile his opposition of the wind turbine based on aesthetics given his support for ugly, revenue generating cell towers.  Wonder what their explanation would be.

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So the Wayne Township Cogeneration Project will include a “small wind turbine for educational purposes.” 

Yet Wayne Township Officials adamantly oppose an actual, working, pollution-free energy generating wind turbine at Wayne Auto Spa.

My question is this:  What exactly do they intend to teach with their non-working wind turbine?  That turbines can generate pollution free electricity — except we won’t actually allow them?

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World climate change protests kick off

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 18 minutes ago 

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BY KIRK MOORE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU

OCEAN GATE — This small town at the mouth of the Toms River took a big step Monday toward becoming the first New Jersey municipality to invest in wind power, when the Borough Council approved new rules for setting up wind turbines.

The ordinance sets the stage for Ocean Gate to install a 50-kilowatt turbine near its municipal building, which local resident and retired engineer James Frye calculates can generate most power needs for the municipal complex.

It’s a plan that takes advantage of perhaps the most unappreciated natural resource on Barnegat Bay — reliable winds that make the Toms River a favorite of sailors and inspired wind power pioneer Russell Long to install a landmark wind turbine at his riverfront home in Berkeley during the late 1970s.

“The first concern is, do you have enough wind? Anyone who lives here can tell you that,” said Frye, who came to the idea of a community wind generator while researching alternative power sources for his own home.

What’s obvious to residents was confirmed with help from experts at Rowan University and weather records from NASA and other agencies. Ocean Gate has consistently reliable wind, averaging more than 6 mph a day even during the mild spring and summer months, he said.

Borough officials are using a rough estimate of $225,000 for the complete cost of buying and installing the turbine, with 30 percent to be paid by a state grant for renewable energy projects. The remainder would be financed with a 10-year bond, with the annual benefits of lower electricity costs growing until the bond is finally paid off, Frye said.

“This is not a savings — it’s a tax stabilization,” Frye said. “We lose 135,000 kilowatt-hours a year in this building. We also know it’s going to cost us $20,000 a year,” with annual increases on the order of 10 percent to 12 percent,” he added.

Mayor Paul Kennedy said the wind project started more than a year ago, when Frye approached borough officials to tell them what he had learned about wind power potential here. “He started talking to me about it, and one thing led to another,” Kennedy said.

The proposal has its skeptics, especially immediate neighbors who would be looking at the turbine tower and its 50-foot rotor blades.

“Did you ever get any estimates on solar panels?” asked neighbor John E. Schaefer of East Cape May Avenue.

There’s not enough roof area on the borough hall to fit a 50-kilowatt solar system, and the cost for that match of wind turbine output would be around $625,000, said Ralph Avallone of the Green Energy Council, a trade group for producers of renewable energy systems including wind and solar.

“This is the first community in New Jersey to adopt such an aggressive wind energy ordinance,” Avallone told the council. He said the Ocean Gate ordinance — penned with help from wind advocates like Island Wind president Michael Mercurio of Long Beach Township — is so significant that Avallone’s group is sending copies to national mayors’ and building code organizations.

“I want to commend you for being on the cutting edge,” said Joseph L. Fiordaliso, a commissioner on the state Board of Public Utilities, which has been offering incentives to encourage development of wind power.

Fiordaliso acknowledged one problem neighbors pointed out: State law constrains Ocean Gate’s site planning, by prohibiting the turbine transmission line from crossing property lines and utility rights of way.

“Under utility laws you cannot cross a street or property line, or you become a utility” subject to the same massive body of regulation, Mercurio said. But that’s a change that needs to come from the state Legislature, they said.

Prodded by climate change, a state task force recently put out a report that says tough choices need to be made on nuclear and renewable power sources if New Jersey is to significantly restrain its output of greenhouse gases.

“We have a 900-megawatt goal for non-solar alternatives by 2020,” said Gail Collins of the state’s Clean Energy Program. “This is a really great program.”

Kennedy said he’s arranged for a tour of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority wind generators in Atlantic City for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, and can bring in any Ocean Gate residents who want to see those turbines if they call his office early and can arrange their own transportation to the ACUA plant on the White Horse Pike/Route 40.

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We all agree that pollution is bad, resource conservation is good and
reliance on foreign oil raises national security issues in this
post-September 11 War Against Terror era.

We all agree that we should take better care of the Earth — there’s no downside to that.

And climate change has become an increasingly common topic of concerned
conversation — no longer limited to the so-called ‘liberal left.’

Not surprisingly, it is now hip to be green. Its hard to miss
environmental issus on tv, the Internet and in the newspapers. Everyone,
it seems, claims to be a noveau environmentalist.  As if being
green-minded is suddenly on par with motherhood and apple pie.

But most of us seem to be waiting for our elected representatives to lead us to the solutions to these important problems rather than taking action ourselves. 

Of course, many folks are doing their part, as best they can. And for sure, the aggregate effect of 300 million people each installing one compact fluorescent bulb would make a big difference.

But my view is that we need a more fundamental change.  We need to change how we generate electricity and we need to change how we power automobiles.  The basic technologies already exist, though in many instances are relatively primitive.

We have solar and wind electricity capabilities today. These are renewable energy resources and are pollution-free. We have several alternatives to 100% gasoline fueled automobiles that are in various stages of development, including hybrid electric/gas engines and biodiesel made from vegetable oil. (Indeed, with school budgets being decimated by fuel costs, its shocking that only a few districts nationwide have begun using biodiesel for their school bus fleets to save tax dollars.)

The free markets at work in the United States haven’t yet propelled these shifts on a grand scale. Evidence of the beginnings of these changes is all around us. Yet today, ‘not in my backyard’ continues to quash efforts to roll out wind turbines from Nantucket to the Jersey Shore to Wayne Auto Spa.

Given all this, I do not understand why there isn’t a nationwide — if not worldwide — grassroots movement that demands immediate change on a grand scale.

What are we waiting for?

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Below are links to the radio show at William Paterson University from this past Monday.  We discussed the wind turbine in lots of detail.  if you’re interested in this topic, after you hear this show you will know most of the details and the pros & cons.

Part 1 Radio Broadcast

Part 2 Radio Broadcast

Part 3 Radio Broadcast

Part 4 Radio Broadcast

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