Edison: Doctors and Power Don't Mix

The power plant proposed to be constructed by MASCO is not in the best interests of the Harvard Schools, hospitals or the city of Boston from a financial, environmental or reliability standpoint.

The plant--a major industrial facility burning millions of gallons of fuel oil each year for the generation of electricity as well as the production of steam and the operation of an incinerator, located on Brookline Avenue in the middle of a group of hospitals--would clearly have a serious adverse environmental impact in the Medical School-Hospital area and in the City of Boston and the surrounding area, regardless of what steps are taken to minimize that impact. The many large trucks--an average of 18 or more each day--required for the delivery of fuel oil to the plant would create substantial additional truck traffic in that area of the city, adding to the traffic congestion and parking problems in that area, causing damage to the hospital and residential streets the trucks would use, and causing noise and exhaust pollution from the trucks. The operation of the plant, with its large equipment for the generation of electricity, would result in substantial additional noise, noise having an especially adverse impact in the Hospital area.

The plant, which could burn as much as 40,000,000 gallons of oil each year for the generation of electricity and the production of steam and the operation of the incinerator, would clearly be a source of serious air-pollution in the area: The operation of the plant would unavoidably result in the emission of substantial effluents and particulates, causing deterioration in the air quality in the vicinity of the plant and in the City of Boston.

There are viable alternatives to the plant which would assure the MASCO institutions of a reliable supply of steam and chilled water. Any suggestion that the proposed plant is necessary to assure the MASCO institutions of a reliable supply of electricity is absolutely untrue. Edison is presently supplying and has for many years supplied substantially all the electric requirements of the MASCO institutions on a highly reliable basis. In fact, over many years Edison's record of reliability has been 99.99 per cent. If they continue to purchase their electricity from Edison, Edison is ready, willing and able to continue to provide the MASCO institutions with a reliable supply of electricity in the future in contrast, the MASCO plant would clearly not be as reliable as Edison's electric service and would be much less reliable, being an isolated plant with engine-driven generators completely dependent on fuel oil for the generation of electricity over the life of the plant, with no provision for any other fuel.

The report [the draft environmental impact statement on the power plant] states repeatedly that the construction of the MASCO plant is necessary because of Edison's decision not to proceed with a transformer installation which would be located at Colburn Street. Until MASCO made clear its intention to proceed with the proposed plant, Edison was planning the construction of a new transformer installation at Colburn Street to provide additional transformation and distribution facilities to supply the growing electrical needs of the MASCO institutions in the coming years. Edison had originally planned to have this facility in operation in 1975-76 and only suspended plans for this installation after plans to proceed with the MASCO plant were announced. Thus, the statements in the report to the effect that the proposed MASCO plant is necessary because Edison is not proceeding with the Colburn Street station are nonsense. If the MASCO institutions should continue to purchase their electricity from Edison for the forseeable future, Edison would immediately proceed with the construction of the Colburn Street installation and would intend to have it completed by 1978.

It is inconceivable that in 1975 in New England, anyone would seriously propose that an electric-generating and steam power plant such as the proposed MASCO plant--a major industrial facility which would burn millions of gallons of oil each year, being completely dependent on fuel oil for the generation of electricity over the 40-year life of the plant and having no provision for the use of any other fuel--should be constructed on Brookline Avenue in the middle of a group of some of the finest hospitals in the world to supply electricity to those hospitals. The construction of such a plant is even more inconceivable when the public utility, Edison, is already utilizing nuclear energy for the generation of 30 per cent of the electricity supplied to its customers and will, within several years, be utilizing nuclear energy for the generation of 50 per cent of that electricity.