Letter: Some ideas for power plant's future

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May 27, 2009

Anonymous The Salem News Wed May 27, 2009, 12:07 AM EDT

To the editor:

Ever since last Thursday night when I heard the governor say that he and the owners of the Salem Harbor Station, which still burns dirty coal, would have something to tell us in two weeks, I began to wonder about the possibilities.

With the passage into law of The Green Communities Act and Global Warming Solutions Act in Massachusetts, and the fact that this plant is no longer needed long-term for reliability, it appears that the owner will switch fuels. But to what?

1.) Biomass: This could be any range of substances from pure wood chips to animal waste. The plant is just too old, too big and too poorly situated for that.

2.) Paper burning: Hazardous air pollutants like dioxins are produced; this would require additional abatement technology.

3.) Trash: Expensive abatement technology is needed to trap particulates and hazardous air pollutants.

4.) Coal Gasification: High-priced plant rebuilding necessary for this — and there is no place to put the CO2.

5.) Gas: The financial bottom line has changed; is it now profitable to hook up to those nearby lines?

But what about the possibility of getting imaginative? Dominion could replace this dangerous old clunker with an efficient and cleaner, small gas-fired peaking plant that feeds electricity into the handy transmission lines. It could even use some of the gas produced from its neighbor, the South Essex Sewerage District plant. The rest of their site could be redeveloped instead of storing a gargantuan coal pile and oil tanks on it.

What's the plan, Dominion? The community you impact awaits your news.

Lynn Nadeau

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Letter: Some ideas for power plant's future

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