Plan would convert Mass. river discharge to heat

NECN, 2/2/2011

BOSTON (AP) — Federal officials say a new plan will reduce the harmful hot water a power plant dumps into the Charles River and convert it into steam that heats Boston buildings.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that a permit for Cambridge's Kendall Cogeneration Station requires a 95 percent cut in the average 70 million gallons it withdraws from the river daily, then dumps back in.

Environmentalists argued the dumped water — as hot as 105 degrees — kills fish life.

Under the new plan, the plant will convert the hot water into steam and ship it through a new pipeline to Boston to heat buildings.

Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group that fought for the plan, said "tenacity, creativity and serendipity" helped find a solution "in which everyone wins."

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