Thursday, November 16, 2000 Older Editions

Power-struggle win: State OKs Dracut power plant site

By Adam Groff

In a defeat for the Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment, the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board last Thursday voted unanimously to give final approval to the location of a proposed 750-megawatt, natural-gas-fired power plant in Dracut.

The plant will be built near the Methuen border and within a mile of Andover.

Nickel Hill Energy plans to purchase from quarry owner Brox Industries Inc. 25 acres, on which it will build the facility. The site is ideal from Nickel Hill's point of view, as it is close to the New England power grid, natural-gas pipelines, and the Merrimack River, from which water could be drawn for cooling the plant.

The site is much less than ideal, however, from the point of view of the Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment. Thursday's decision was a setback for the MVRE, whose president and attorneys have spoken before the siting board in an effort to get last month's provisional approval overturned.

"In my estimation, no reasonable person could make that board recommendation," said Sheryl Poole of Andover, MVRE president. "They (Nickel Hill) misrepresented this plant to the people of Dracut and the people of the Merrimack Valley just so they could get it in there."

The argument of the MVRE and other groups like it is that the Merrimack Valley already bears, in Poole's words, "a disproportionate burden" of the total pollution and environmental degradation in the state, largely because of the two large trash incinerators and the medical waste incinerator in the region.

When asked to justify her concerns, Poole marshals a dizzying litany of statistics: the two solid-waste incinerators burn over a third of the trash for the entire state; the medical waste incinerator, located in a residential neighborhood of Lawrence, is the largest in New England and the second largest east of the Mississippi; the highway corridors of Interstates 495 and 93, and Route 3, add enormous amounts of auto pollution.

Then the health statistics trip off her tongue: West Andover has the highest breast cancer rate in the state; in Lawrence, the pediatric asthma rate is two and a half times the state average; six Merrimack Valley towns have asthma hospitalization rates higher than the state average; Essex County has more deaths related to air toxins than any other county in New England.

For these reasons and many more, Poole and her fellow concerned citizens believe that another power plant is the last thing the Merrimack Valley needs.

Nickel Hill Energy and its supporters argue just as strongly for the project's merits. The project was approved by the Dracut Board of Selectmen and 1999 Town Meeting, and if completed, the company would become the largest single taxpayer in the town -- larger, in fact, by the company's estimate, than the current top 10 taxpayers in Dracut combined.

Nickel Hill, a subsidiary of Constellation Power Inc., based in Baltimore, Md., touts the cleanliness of natural-gas power generation in comparison with coal- or oil-fired plants. The company expects the new plant to displace older and dirtier sources of power in the region.

But most importantly, the company has cleared every environmental hurdle put in place by state and federal regulators. The next in line are air and water permits. If this winning streak continues, according to Nickel Hill project manager Donald Walters, construction could begin as early as next summer.

Walters is familiar with the general position taken by the MVRE, and he says he is befuddled by their claims. His understanding, which he says is backed by independent third-party sources such as the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, is that "the air quality in the Merrimack Valley is not worse than the state average, it's actually better than in the state."

He added, "When I hear people saying things that are so diametrically opposed, I'm just perplexed." In fact, he suggested that he would be interested in holding some type of forum in the area, at which independent environmental authorities could give their opinions about the impact of the project.

Meanwhile, Poole, who spoke at the siting board meeting last Thursday, indicates she believes that board failed miserably in its responsibility to insist that Nickel Hill credibly back its claims of causing minimal environmental impact. According to just one of her examples, the company has at different times given wildly differing estimates of the levels of volatile organic compounds that the plant would emit -- ranging from 49 tons per year to 98 and back to 70.

"This shows that they're either being disingenuous or they don't know what they're doing, and either way it's unacceptable," she asserted. Other issues include noise pollution from the plant, options for pollution-control technology, cooling methods, and wetlands preservation. On every one of these issues, according to Poole, the company is selecting the options that are best for its bottom line and harmful to the health and well-being of Merrimack Valley residents.

According to Poole, the various state agencies that have to deal with such issues are "passing the buck." Asked why this would be, she responded, "Because the issues we're raising are cumbersome, difficult issues for these agencies to deal with. We're asking for something that hasn't been asked for before."

That something boils down to the enormously complex scientific task of "connecting the dots," as Poole says, between a constellation of pollution sources to prove conclusively that they do indeed influence the rates of such things as cancer and asthma in the Merrimack Valley, and that the Nickel Hill project specifically would exacerbate these problems.

"I can't tell you with scientific certainty that it's the incinerator (for example) that's causing asthma attacks," she said candidly, "But I can tell you that intuitively. Can I prove it? No. Until I can prove it, the state can't back me up."

"Air quality is a function of many different sources," said Walters.

"And it's easy to pick on stationary sources. There are many others though," he said, citing the large automobiles that so many people choose to drive.

Poole, who is the mother of five children, says it is difficult to keep up morale in the face of decisions like the one last week, but she is undaunted.

"Nobody here (in the MVRE) has an ax to grind except the protection of the health and environment of the community. They're not out here to make things difficult, they sincerely believe that this is not the best thing. It is not the best plant, and it is not the best site."