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Hot Topics > Salem Power Plant The Salem Harbor Power Plant will close June 1, 2014
link includes photos and two part documentary
It was a hot summer day in 1997 when I spotted my daughters’ sooty little footprints on the white tiles of the kitchen floor. When they didn’t clean up easily, I began to wonder what was being tracked in from the deck on my daughters’ feet. The coal-and-oil-burning Salem Harbor Power Plant, which has loomed large on my horizon throughout my life, suddenly came into sharp focus.
After I called the plant, an insurance adjuster hired by the plant owner arrived at my home to take samples. A month later, a letter arrived indicating that the soot on my floor, deck and children could be from the plant, and as part of their “good neighbor policy” they were willing to power wash my deck if I released them from liability. I stood at my mailbox, letter in hand, and I realized the plant owners had missed my point. I wasn’t concerned about my deck as they assumed. Who was going to power wash our lungs?
The “good neighbor policy” has been in force for decades cleaning drapes, cars and boats, but the toll it was taking on our health could not be washed away. In 2001, The Harvard School of Public Health specified numbers of premature deaths, asthma attacks and illnesses in the thousands. For that reason alone, I’m proud and delighted to say:
The Salem Harbor Power Plant is going to shutdown on June 1, 2014.
To get to this point, so much is owed to so many. As a result of my letter to the editor, I got a call from Linda Weltner who invited me to join concerned Marblehead residents gathering in her living room following the death of a dear friend, Norma Warren. Prevention of what intuitively seemed like a high rate of local cancers was the focus. The Massachusetts Cancer Registry soon confirmed our suspicions with city and town statistics.
Lynn Nadeau and Mark Rogers took the lead in focusing on the power plant, forming HealthLink. Lynn’s courage and boundless energy have been the constant that keeps this effort on track while Jane Bright’s talent and tenacity propelled us forward.
Clean Water Action and MASSPIRG provided invaluable technical and organizational support. Hard work that spanned four state administrations led to the establishment and implementation of stricter power-plant regulations for Massachusetts to rein in emissions from these old grandfathered plants in Massachusetts.
But what else was coming from the plant? I began to follow the trail left by trucks leaving the plant and discovered coal waste, laden with toxic heavy metals. I was horrified to learn that 20 years of dumping between the ’50s and the ’70s led to several feet of waste at the bottom of Wenham Lake, drinking water for 80,000 North Shore residents. I co-founded the Wenham Lake Watershed Association with Jan Schlichtmann, Beverly resident and the famed attorney in “A Civil Action.” Lake history features Queen Victoria insisting that her ice come from Wenham Lake, once world renowned for its purity. It was now disgracefully full of waste.
With some theatrics and gritty political action, that organization successfully compelled the original owners of the power plant to cleanup its mess. It took $10 million dollars, six years and the involvement of an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies to clean up this poisonous sediment. Most of the damage to the lake has been undone, and the city of Beverly created a soccer field where coal waste was once piled high. But there was more to do.
With help from the Conservation Law Foundation, two lawsuits were launched. One led to the successful cleanup under unlined impoundment ponds on the plant property. The other, which is still active, addresses air-pollution violations based on the plant’s own records. We organized, studied, testified, mourned and fearlessly jumped into the fray. Salem’s own Salem Alliance for the Environment was formed, and together we spoke truth to power.
Over the past 14 years, as those little footprints have grown larger than my own, their image has been an insistent inspiration for ongoing action. Ten years ago, it got even more personal when my father, Harvey Litman, who was born and grew up in Salem and then raised our family on Tidewinds Terrace on the West Shore of Marblehead, was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive brain tumor known as a glioblastoma multiforme. First it stole him from my mom and our family, and then took his life. His doctors at Mass. General said it was likely environmentally caused. He was my greatest champion, business partner and best friend until his death in 2001 took him from me.
Credit is due to many state and local elected and non-elected officials for their courage and integrity. The hard-working people in the media who have covered this issue over the years have my respect. They asked tough questions and sacrificed many a pair of shoes mucking through the waste before and during the cleanup. New entrants into the fray, Stop the Plant Now! and A Vision for Salem challenged the community to imagine alternatives, something that is no longer a theoretical exercise.
So what does this all mean? Well, first of all, our region will be much healthier with less asthma attacks, upper respiratory illnesses, cancer and premature deaths. That’s primary.
Though a long time coming, the plant’s closure is going to be a tremendous challenge for Salem. Dominion, the plant’s owner, has a separately negotiated tax arrangement with the city and there is a degree of justified nervousness that Dominion will not pay at the level to which the city has become accustomed. To help the city transition, the state has come forward with a $200,000 reuse study ably led by the mayor. I was not permitted to participate in that study with other elected officials and Dominion lobbyists, but if you have a vision, please share it with me and I will be sure it is considered.
It is my hope that stakeholders in that process will take seriously this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to embrace a sustainable long-term vision for that uniquely beautiful waterfront location on such historic and tourist-rich shores.
And for all of the highs and lows, discomfort and adventure, hard work and long hours, I hope this story will inspire more citizens in to action. For those who metaphorically encounter sooty footprints on the white tiles of their life, don’t be beaten down by feelings of powerlessness. Instead, embrace that message as an opportunity for engagement and positive change.
State Rep. Lori Ehrlich represents Marblehead, Swampscott and two precincts in Lynn.
BOSTON—New England's electricity grid manager said Tuesday it will allow Salem Harbor Power Station to close two coal-fired units in 2014 and proposed a fix to make the entire 60-year-old plant unneeded.
The decision by ISO New England follows plant owner Dominion Resources Inc.'s request in February to close the plant by June 2014.
Dominion has said it won't invest in upgrades at the four-unit, coal- and oil-fired plant, long targeted by environmentalists but valued by locals for its jobs and the millions it pays in annual tax revenues.
The ISO can't force any company to keep a plant open. But if it determines a plant is needed to ensure reliable electricity delivery during times of heaviest demand, the plant owner can make a deal with federal regulators in which ratepayers would cover the costs of any upgrades required to keep the facility going.
At a Monday meeting in Westborough, the ISO okayed shuttering two of Salem's coal-fired units. But it said the two larger units -- one fueled by oil, the other by coal -- were still needed to guarantee reliable electricity between June 2014 and May 2015.
It also recommended a solution to beef up the area's electricity transmission system and make the entire Salem plant unnecessary. The fix involves replacing six area 115-kilovolt transmission lines with larger wires that can carry more energy.
The upgrade would cost an estimated $51 million, according to a preliminary estimate in an ISO New England document from December 2010. The plan would have to be approved by state regulators.
It's an affordable price, compared with the cost of keeping the plant running amid tightening clean air regulations, according to Shanna Cleveland, an attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation who attended the ISO's meeting Monday by conference call.
"This is an essential step to shut down, because it shows a viable, cost-effective solution" to replacing the plant, Cleveland said. "This confirms that there is a cheaper, cleaner alternative to forcing ratepayers to prop up a polluting coal plant."
Dominion has repeatedly noted the Salem plant meets all current environmental protection regulations.
Cleveland added that upgrading existing transmission lines is much quicker than building new ones, and estimated it can be done by June 2014, which would mean the entire plant could be closed by then.
But Marcia Blomberg, a spokeswoman for the ISO, said it's not certain the upgrades could be finished by 2014. She said the proposed solution isn't final and needs to fit in with other area upgrades before going forward.
Dominion can still shut the entire plant down by June 2014, despite the ISO's determination two units are still needed, and now has until mid-November to notify the ISO if it plans to do so. If Salem Harbor does exit the grid, the ISO would have to devise a plan with local transmission owners to operate without it.
If Dominion decides to keep Salem going, it can ask to be compensated for its costs. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would have to approve that request.
On Tuesday, a Dominion spokesman said the company wouldn't comment until it has had time to study the ISO's decision.
If Dominion keeps the Salem plant running, Dominion would have to shut it down once the area's transmission upgrades were complete and the plant was no longer needed.
The Salem plant opened in 1951, and was expanded in 1958 and 1972. The 745-megawatt plant can power 745,000 homes at full capacity. Last year, it paid Salem $4.75 million in taxes and fees.
December 1, 2010
My View: News lacks the vision thing
My View
Lori Ehrlich
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A recent Salem News editorial ("Hold the cheers — or tears — for power plant's closing," Friday, Nov. 26) begins on an unfortunate, non-attributed note, stating, "Someone who's followed the story for a long time insists reports of Salem Harbor Station's demise are greatly exaggerated."
In the next paragraph, the paper writes, without substantiation, that the plant is to be shuttered in seven years.
A closer look at the transcript of a Nov. 2 Edison Electric Institute conference in California, previously covered by The Salem News, reveals something quite different. At this conference, Dominion's CFO, Mark McGettrick, said, "In the near future, certainly in this five-year horizon, we would expect Salem Harbor plant to shut down. We will not invest any capital for environmental improvements at Salem Harbor."
Besides the sloppy nature of the Salem News editorial, this double slip of time and details lays bare the usual attachment to the status quo that has kept the region and ratepayers shackled to a deadly and obsolete old coal plant. By denying the maximum five-year timeline, Dominion's unequivocal statement of closure, and the fact that the company will not be investing any capital to help the plant comply with state and federal regulation, doubt is cast on need for transitional planning. By doing so, the paper is shamefully out of sync with the plant owners and city elected officials who have begun to take important steps to accept and plan for the inevitable.
Editors again diminish the 60 years that the region has waited for relief from the daily assault of pollution from burning coal in our harbor. Consider, too, that it was a half-century of denial that kept coal waste at the bottom of Wenham Lake, the main source of drinking water for 80,000 residents of Salem, Beverly and parts of Wenham. Denial didn't drive a six-year, $10-million cleanup of that problem.
Sixty years is too late for some things, and for some of us, but the time has come for transition.
The ratepayer deserves better than the false choice of "plant or no plant." Ratepayers have borne the burden of keeping this plant afloat for years and now are paying above-market rates to the tune of $20 million for the next two years to import and burn cheap coal here.
Dominion's CFO made clear in his remarks at the Edison Electric Institute gathering that the company will not invest its dollars in this plant. Why should we invest ours? With a just transition, local businesses and tourism can be bolstered without ruining our health, killing workers and destroying our natural resources.
Private citizens and several brownfield developers are coming forward with creative and potentially lucrative development ideas. Any development will also enjoy the benefit of a 2002 $6-million cleanup of on-site contamination from unlined impoundment ponds. With a federally designated deepwater port, it's not a stretch to imagine this 65-acre property hosting cruise ships or other types of maritime commerce.
There will no doubt be unique challenges transitioning this property. But it's not the only coal plant in the country going by the wayside, just the oldest.
The Salem News and those naysayers who spend so much time and energy pointing out what cannot be done, need to change their tune and join Dominion, city and state leadership, and the air-breathing public, in imagining other possibilities.
• • •
Lori A. Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, was recently elected to her third term as state representative for the 8th Essex District, which includes the towns of Marblehead and Swampscott and part of Lynn.
State Rep. Lori Ehrlich plans to tweak and refile a bill requiring utility companies to fix known gas leaks in their pipelines, which she said is a clear public safety hazard. She's also working with other lawmakers on a bill that braces both the city and workers for a transition if the Salem power plant closes.
Meanwhile, she's also trying to push along two bills regulating debt collection, including one that establishes behavior guidelines for collectors.
"Between an active campaign and what's shaping up to be a very challenging session ahead, I've been putting in very long hours since formal sessions ended," Ehrlich said.
Marblehead & Swampscott Reporters
By State Rep. Lori Ehrlich / Guest columnist
In a February column “All neighbors have stake in power-plant suit,” I discussed a lawsuit in the works against the owners of the Salem Power Plant, Dominion Resources, a giant Virginia-based energy company, for violating the federal Clean Air Act. The suit has been filed and there are even more violations listed than originally anticipated.
In that column, I reported to you that 286 violations occurred during 2005-2008 and the first three quarters of 2009. The lawsuit now lists 317 violations of the federal Clean Air Act’s opacity pollution limit in the past five years and argues that penalties of more than $10 million are due.
 How many times have you drawn a breath over the past five years? Five years is of course a long time, but consider that it’s been 11 times that amount of time since the plant was built on our harbor. For over a half century, pollution from that plant has not only coated every surface along with sunlight, snow and rain, but it also creeps into our homes, our lungs and our bloodstreams.
The cost to our health is too high, and that’s why many of us have been fighting for decades to prompt the owners, currently Dominion Resources, to clean up this filthy and long-depreciated facility.
In this week’s Reporter, one of Dominion’s many spokespeople responds with a well-worn talking point saying in the plant’s defense, “Salem Harbor Power Station operates in full compliance with all federal and state regulations,’’ while declining to address the substance of the lawsuit. This response has long provided shelter for the corporation from those who have clamored for cleanup. But now that Dominion’s own records are being used to substantiate violations, this statement is more than ridiculous — it’s outrageous.
The costs to society of laxly regulated coal burning are pricey in so many ways but remain external to the bottom line. Mountaintops are removed, slurry ponds give way, and accidents at power plants and coalmines often take the lives of workers. There are less immediate but real costs such as loss of vistas, destruction of natural resources and fouling of our environment.
More obvious is when emissions pit the fiberglass surface of a boat or when our children track it into our homes. The coal waste that sat at the bottom of Wenham Lake (drinking water for 80,000 people in Salem, Beverly and parts of Wenham) for a half century took six years of work to rectify. The approximately $10 million price tag for that ordeal only further emphasizes that prevention is priceless.
This lawsuit will test in the courts the continued ability of the plant owners to ignore public health and sidestep federal regulations. Perhaps now that they’re being held to the law, they will find that burning coal without scrubbers in a dilapidated “grandfathered” plant is too expensive. That choice, after the plant’s owners are held accountable for just a few of the plant’s externalities, unfortunately, is theirs.
State Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, who represents Marblehead, Swampscott and two precincts in Lynn on Beacon Hill, is a co-founder of Beverly-based Wenham Lake Watershed Association and Swampscott-based HealthLink, community-based nonprofits formed to address pollution from the Salem Harbor Power Plant. 
Lawsuit filed against Salem Power Plant Marblehead Reporter
Conservation group sues over emissions at Salem Plant Boston Globe
COLUMN: All neighbors have stake in power plant suit Marblehead Reporter
Letter to the Editor: Power plant a "tremendous asset"
Letter to the Editor: No plant would be an even better asset
Letter to the Editor: Dominion's compliance claim 'disingenuous'
Environmental Group files to sue city plant Salem News
Alternative use study Stop the Plant Now
Environmental group to file suit against Salem power plant Marblehead Reporter
Utility accused of emission offenses in Salem Boston Globe
Environmental Group to file suit against Salem Power Plant Marblehead Reporter
State, power plant are in 'green' talks The Salem News
By State Rep. Lori Ehrlich
Posted Feb 04, 2010 @ 05:00 AM
For more than half a century, the Salem Harbor Power Station has sat on our shore burning coal and belching a dark plume of soot that blankets our neighborhoods day and night. On any given day, we can find a film of this soot everywhere from our cars to our decks. There is no debate that, with every breath, our families and neighbors are absorbing mercury, soot and particulates laced with deadly toxins. The cost to our health is too high, and that’s why many of us have been fighting for decades to prompt the owners, currently Dominion Resources, a giant Virginia-based energy company, to clean up this filthy and long-depreciated facility.
Throughout this often-discouraging battle, it has been very clear that Dominion has had little intention of making any effort to clean up the plant. A massive “grandfather” loophole has allowed the plant to ignore the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act since 1970, when plants like this were considered obsolete and due to be mothballed. Dominion has neglected to bring this old power plant up to modern-day emission standards while making a substantial investment in their other Massachusetts plant in order to extend the life of that facility.
What’s worse is that even though they have a more lax set of federal emission standards with which to comply, a recent examination of the plant’s own records revealed hundreds of violations — 286 during 2005-2008 and the first three quarters of 2009. These violations have prompted the Conservation Law Foundation to initiate the process for bringing a federal lawsuit against Dominion Energy. If successful, the suit will hold Dominion responsible for paying penalties retroactively for violations of the smokestack emissions limits. Well-documented evidence by plant records and by public observation clearly shows that Dominion violated these emissions limits.
My hope is that this legal action will force Dominion to pay fines and desist from flaunting the regulations. The plant’s long history of neglecting public health standards will be ended.
The stakeholders in this case are more than just the residents of Salem. While tax revenue stays within city limits, air pollution only listens to the wind. The plant’s coal waste once contaminated drinking water for three communities, and mercury from the plant is ingested by the fish we eat. Everyone in the surrounding communities has a stake in this power plant and the outcome of this lawsuit.
We must no longer allow Dominion to hijack our health for profit — they must be held accountable. This lawsuit will test in the courts the ability of the plant owners to ignore public health and sidestep federal regulations. In fact, they may choose to close the plant rather than comply. The city of Salem and its neighbors will need to plan for this eventuality and the reuse of this valuable property. Let us work together with our neighbors towards the day when a clean, sustainable use for that special place will replace this dirty, poisonous plant and provide real value to Salem and the surrounding communities.
State Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, is a founding former member of HealthLink, a grassroots organization whose initial efforts focused on the cleanup of the power plant in Salem.
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