Providence's Alternative Source!
  Feedback


THE ENVIRONMENT
Brayton Point proposal draws criticism

BY BETHANY RALLIS

Accusing Pacific Gas & Electric of seeking special treatment from the Environmental Protection Agency, Save The Bay is petitioning the EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management to devise more stringent regulations for PG&E's Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts.

The Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) cites the Brayton Point coal station as the largest single source of air pollution in New England and the major source of thermal discharge in Mount Hope Bay. Operating under a permit that expired in 1998, the plant returns heated water to the bay at temperatures of up to 95 degrees -- a practice that has diminished the amount of white flounder and other fish in the bay, says John Torgan, Narragansett Baykeeper for Save The Bay.

Brayton Point also has a major impact on Rhode Island, according to the CLF, since the 10,000 tons of coal burned each day at the plant spread sulfur, nitrogen, and toxic metals, including mercury and arsenic, into the air, posing potential health risks for people within a 31-mile radius. The CLF is working with Save The Bay and Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse's office to create stricter standards for Brayton Point.

PG&E is awaiting a response from the EPA on its request for a new environmental permit. Tom Powers, a PG&E spokesman, says the company is aware of the harm caused to fish by the plant, and he describes the permit request as part of an effort to decrease thermal discharge by about 33 percent. These provisions should bring "the impact of the plant back to the 1970s level" -- before the problem of depletion in the fish population became evident, Powers says.

If the EPA approves the new permit, PG&E will continue to monitor the plant's impact through a grant to the University of Massachusetts Center for Marine Technology in New Bedford, he says. "If the monitors show that the plant is having a negative effect, we will recognize the problem and make subsequent provisions," Powers says.

Carol Lee Wran, a staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, however, says PG&E's "operations have devastated the bay," and she remains skeptical that the company's proposal would be sufficient to relieve the problems caused by thermal discharge.

Issue Date: December 28, 2001 - January 3, 2002