BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL Hot water in the CharlesTHE GOAL of making the Charles River swimmable and fishable by 2005
will be undercut if the state Department of Environmental Protection and
the US Environmental Protection Agency do not tighten up their draft
permit for hot water discharge from the Mirant Kendall, which sits near the Cambridge end of the Longfellow Bridge, has won kudos for relying less on oil and more on cleaner-burning natural gas. But air pollution gains will be a water pollution loss if the new permit does not reduce the plant's discharges of turbine-cooling water. The draft permit would allow the 234-megawatt plant to release the same amount as the current permit. Also, the draft permit would set the limit on an annual averaged basis instead of monthly, giving the utility additional flexibility to make larger discharges. During three spring months there would be monthly limits. Next year the state Division of Marine Fisheries plans to supplement the river's small natural population of shad with stocked fish. Already, improvements have been made to fish ladders on the river's dams. If all goes well, the Charles could have as impressive a shad run as the Merrimack River. But Marine Fisheries worries about the quality of the net barrier proposed in the draft and about the hot water discharges, which it says could cause a proliferation of nuisance algae and harm the migration of migratory fish. Unless changes are made in the permit, the division says, "we expect the habitat we rely on to support our enhancement efforts will become more unsuitable and conflict with our restoration efforts." If the EPA hopes to make the Charles fishable by next year, it should
redraw its permit more in line with recommendations from fishery and
conservation advocates. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. Read the Boston Globe article from Saturday, September 11, 2004, detailing CRWA's work on this issue Return to the CRWA Mirant Kendall Station information page |
