Eco-Terrorism Threat Investigation Heats Up

A "chemical of concern" was found at the site of a proposed power plant in Plainfield, Connecticut environmental officials said. 

The state Department of Environmental Protection won't name the chemical, citing an active criminal investigation.  The contamination does not present an immediate threat to public health, the environment, ground water or drinking water, the agency said in a statement Friday afternoon.  

The DEP will continue to oversee cleanup at the site, and is working with the FBI and Plainfield police on the investigation.

Police and DEP officials searched an area off Mill Brook Road in Plainfield earlier this week in response to an eco-terrorism threat against developers of a proposed wood-burning power plant.

A manifesto claiming to be sent by Earth First, a radical environmental advocacy group formed in 1979, was mailed last week to PRE Vice-President Daniel J. Donovan and copied to a local newspaper and the DEP.

It said that its members have targeted the residences of Plainfield Renewable Energy principals for contamination, as well as a parcel of land off Mill Brook Road.

DEP officers found three areas of concern, each containing a substance that shouldn’t be at the Mill Brook Road site.  After more digging, the officers discovered an industrial solvent that is a known carcinogen. 

The group, which stated it could be contacted through an Arizona address, said it also spread contaminants at several locations on the Mill Brook Road property, near where the proposed power plant is to be built.

"We didn't send you this. I don't know what's going on in Connecticut," a person at earthfirst.org said.

According to the Earth First Journal, a Web publication for the group, the group claims ... "We believe in using all the tools in the toolbox, from grassroots and legal organizing to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching. When the law won't fix the problem, we put our bodies on the line to stop the destruction."

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