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November 21, 2008

Our view: A lopsided view of Salem Harbor's future

Give Salem resident Lisa Abbate and her A Vision for Salem group credit for trying to come up with alternative uses for the waterfront site currently occupied by Dominion's Salem Harbor Station. Certainly we agree the city ought to have a plan of action should the power plant close its doors — as Abbate and others in the environmental movement locally fervently hope will happen soon.

However, it's our view the city and the region are best served by having Salem Harbor Station remain on line for the indefinite future.

As the result of improvements made by Dominion and previous owners, it is among the cleanest coal-burning plants in the country. And despite the construction of new plants, improvements in transmission capacity and efforts at conservation, the fact is Salem Harbor Station is still essential to meeting demand during peak usage periods and for keeping electricity costs down.

There's a reason the New England power grid still buys almost as much electricity as Salem Harbor Station can produce — burning coal is a lot cheaper than burning oil or natural gas.

And the fact that it remains an important resource for meeting electricity demand during the coldest periods of winter and hottest days of summer, hardly makes it dispensable as some critics contend.

As for Abbate and friends' "vision for Salem," symbolized by a cruise ship towing the power plant into the harbor, even its primary architect admits the plan is based on some very optimistic assumptions regarding the cleanup and future development of the site.

Plans for a mixed-use development that would include single-family homes, an apartment complex, a large hotel, retail and office space and a marina, look great on paper. But while some would enjoy spectacular harbor views, others would see and smell the South Essex Sewerage District plant next door or look out at the National Grid transmission facility that sits between the plant site and Fort Avenue.

And then there's the question of access to the property, which sits at the foot of historic and exceedingly narrow Derby Street. There's no easy way in or out — which is the way Salem Willows residents like it; and we don't know how much appetite there would be for a bridge connecting the site with West Shore Drive in Marblehead.

The Brattle report suggests that any property-tax loss suffered by the plant's closure would be more than offset by the new revenue streams a mixed-use development would create. But neighbors might be interested in knowing that half of this projected revenue is slated to come as the result of an increase in value — meaning higher taxes — for nearby properties.

And then there's the prediction that tourism in the city could double as a result of this development. This, the report's authors note, "is an assumption and should not be interpreted as a definitive forecast." We should say so.

This space has always maintained that health concerns regarding Salem Harbor Station are overblown, especially when weighed against the pollutants blown east by the hundreds of dirtier coal plants operating in other parts of the country; or the emissions from all the motor vehicles operating on the commonwealth's roadways.

This space has also contended that it is not wise public policy for the region, which has few natural resources of its own, to put itself entirely at the mercy of natural gas suppliers, domestic or foreign.

The state has been in the forefront of the effort to develop alternative energy sources, including wind and solar. But there's nothing coming on line in the foreseeable future that would produce the equivalent of Salem Harbor Station's output.

A healthy port has a wide variety of uses, not all of them aesthetically pleasing. But there's no suggestion in the Brattle Group report that this site might be retained for industrial use by, for instance, replacing the coal plant with a nuclear facility.

It does note that it might be a good location for a casino, however.

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