Opponents of Invenergy‘s $1 billion fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant aimed at the heart of the forests located in Burrillville, Rhode Island will be on hand Tuesday evening during the Fall River City Council meeting to voice their opposition to to a deal struck between the City of Fall River and Benn Water to provide the water needed to cool the power plant’s turbines.

On August 17, the Watuppa Water Board voted 2-1 to approve the deal to deliver up to 88,000 gallons of potable, treated drinking water per day to cool the proposed power plant.

The agreement was signed by Fall River Mayor Jasiel F Correia II and Jeffrey Benn of Benn Water & Heavy Transport Corporation. “The Project is a major energy facility and Benn has entered into a contract to provide water supply thereto known as the Clear River Energy Center located in Burrillville,” says the agreement.

Correia took to Facebook to defend the secret deal he signed with Benn Water writing, “This is another example of the administration and the water department thinking about ways to use our water assets that return savings or stabilization of rates to our water and sewer rate payers.”

In the agreement Benn estimates that the power plant would need approximately 18,720 gallons per day (GPD) in the summer, requiring three trucks per day. However, “Benn may require up to 40,000 GPD which may necessitate up to five truck deliveries per day” and, “Upon the occurrence of certain events at the Project, Benn may require up to 88,000 GPD, which in turn may necessitate up to eleven truck deliveries per day.”

“But that’s not the total story,” says Paul Roselli, president of the Burrillville Land Trust, one of the leaders of the opposition to the power plant since August, 2015. “At certain times, the power plant may require 1.5 million gallons of water per day. When you count truck trips, that is trucks that go back and forth from Fall River to the power plant, the number of trucks could number just over one-thousand truck trips during a 30 day period. The amount of diesel fumes, road damage and the chance of an accident increase with that number of trucks.”

The Fall River City Council meeting takes place on Tuesday, 6pm in council chambers with live coverage by Fall River Government Television on Channel 18 and www.frgtv.us.