Here’s the timeline to date.

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In 2013, Anellotech, a self-proclaimed green technology company rents a vacant firehouse on the Pfizer campus near the intersection of Middletown and Crooked Hill Road. The goal is to research, develop and license the conversion of biomass (ground up corn stalks and sawdust) into industrial chemicals, specifically benzene, xylene and toluene (BTX). Traditionally made from petroleum, benzene is used in plastics, resins, dyes, detergents and pesticides. Xylene and toluene are found in paint thinners, lacquers, adhesives and cleaning agents. These chemicals are toxic, but valuable in the marketplace, and technology enabling their manufacture from cheap biomass is even more valuable.

By December 2013, using carefully guarded techniques, Anellotech’s twenty-three scientists and technicians are incinerating small quantities of biomass and producing high quality samples of what the industry calls Green BTX. The samples are for potential investors interested in licensing Anellotech’s technology.

In July of 2014 Anellotech submits an application to the Orangetown Planning Board to expand their facility with a 2254 square foot addition including an 84-foot tall vent pipe. The vent pipe presumably attaches to where biomass is to be incinerated. According to Anellotech, any emissions will be well within the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation guidelines, but to be extra conservative, the vent will be fitted with a catalytic oxidizer to remove 99.5 percent of any existing toxins.

In September the Planning Board approves the preliminary site plan and issues a “negative declaration” meaning the project is deemed to have no adverse environmental impact.

Next stop for Anellotech is the Zoning Board of Appeals for a review of performance standards. Because the Pfizer campus is zoned for light industrial use, and the company doesn’t need any special variances or permits for its proposed addition, the ZBA stop is essentially a formality before Anellotech goes back to the Planning Board for final approval.

But word is out.

People have mobilized. A Stop Anellotech coalition is formed and a petition to reverse the Planning Board’s negative declaration is circulated. Questions are raised about possible tax incentives for Anellotech. A Facebook campaign called Anellotech Means Cancer is launched. Anellotech’s status as an R&D facility (as opposed to a commercial facility) is questioned. Rumors fly about possible past associations between town representatives and Anellotech. The ZBA requests emissions reports from third party consultants Triumvirate Environmental and Trinity Consultants and postpones any decision on Anellotech’s application until January 2015.

Anellotech hires local get-it-done attorney Donald Brenner.

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The January meeting is a full house. People attend ready to speak out, but ZBA chairman Dan Sullivan reminds everyone that although the gathering is an opportunity for the public to be heard, the ZBA will make the final determination. Speakers are sworn in and comments limited to two minutes. A lengthy read back of various official letters boils down to a few bits of new information: the Rockland County Department of Health has no regulatory authority in this matter, the New York State Division of Environmental Conservation states that R&D facilities are exempt from air quality standards, Anellotech confirms to the Planning Board that it does not sell its samples and is indeed a R&D facility, and third party consultant Triumvirate concludes Anellotech’s projected emissions of benzene will be less than that from cars and lawnmowers.

But we’re talking about known carcinogens, and that makes people very, very nervous. In fact, Anellotech doesn’t know for sure what will be billowing out of that pipe. All the studies, projections, charts and graphs are hypothetical because the proposed facility doesn’t exist yet. Kathleen Kelly, an engineer and professor of health and sciences says during public comments at the January meeting, “I am shocked and ashamed at the lack of attention that has been given this project… the testing that needed to be done has not been done.”

Nevertheless, in April the Anellotech expansion is approved by the Town Planning Board in a 5-2 vote with assurances that Anellotech will take all measures possible to ensure its enlarged facility will not be a threat to public health. These measures include 24/7 online monitoring of the catalytic oxidizer, automatic shut down procedures in case of fire or mechanical failure, and funding for a third party monitor of the entire operation.

None of these efforts have appeased the Stop Anellotech coalition. At a June 16 public hearing the group called for the Town Board to vote on three proposed amendments to Orangetown’s zoning code. One amendment adds “solvents and similar materials, including benzene, toluene and xylene” to the list of substances prohibited for manufacture in Orangetown. Another adds “waste gasification and similar such facilities” as a prohibited land use. If passed into law by the Town Board then future projects like the Anellotech facility would not be allowed.

But Town Attorney John Edwards stated at the June meeting that even if zoning laws are amended by the Town Board at their next meeting in September, it is illegal in New York for new laws to apply retroactively to an already approved project.

This means, like it or not, residents of Orangetown and Clarkstown will be part of Anellotech’s not-so-little chemistry experiment.

Making BTX from biomass instead of oil is touted as cleaner and better for the planet, but the effects of these chemicals on our environment and our health are as difficult to measure as emissions from Anellotech’s vent pipe. The smarter R&D may be to develop products made without using BTX, green or otherwise, but that won’t be happening at Anellotech’s expanded facility.