Dear 'Links,
     How can we make our dream of a new world come true? A healthy planet that supports healthy people?
     Starting here - where the coal-fired power plant has proved to be unsafe not only for the greater community which breathes its dirty emissions, but also for the workers who toil in an aging facility whose owners have refused to invest in essential maintenance and upgrades.  
     We include news articles and letters below to keep you informed and ask you to join in our work through your financial support or volunteer efforts. 
     As you know, we keep on keepin' on!

 

     

Workers taken to hospital after power plant spill
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
SALEM - Six power plant workers were taken to Salem Hospital last week as a "precautionary measure" after a cleaning solution spilled inside the plant.
The spill happened Nov. 3, when a contracting crew cut a pipe at the base of a 30-gallon storage tank that had not been used in about a decade, according to Salem Harbor Station.
Some of the workers complained of feeling dizzy from the fumes, according to Jim Norvelle, a spokesman for Dominion, the plant owner.
"As a precautionary measure, six employees were taken to the hospital to be checked out," he said. "They were all released and they all returned to work" that same day.
The liquid that spilled was a "2 percent solution of water and chemicals" used to control algae and mussels that can grow in the cooling system that draws water from the harbor, the company said.
The cleaning solution contained bromine, hydrobromic acid, chlorine and hydrochloric acid, according to Norvelle.
The spill was contained inside the plant and did not get into the harbor, the company said.
Dominion said it reported the spill to the Salem Fire Department, but was not required to contact state or federal agencies. "The concentration of the chemicals in the solution was below the amount necessary to report the spill," said Norvelle.
A union official said the incident was "not serious."
"It was a strong smell, but it wasn't a very large discharge," said Rick Robey, president of IBEW Local 326. "...A lot of the guys said, 'I don't want to go (to the hospital),' but the company said, 'That's too bad, you're going.'"

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Letter: Time for Dominion to step aside
To the editor:
Tom Dalton's investigation into the latest power plant "incident" ("Startling sound was power plant letting off steam," Friday, Nov. 7) raises troubling questions.
Dominion's Don Genest said that they hadn't had a valve on a boiler become stuck in a decade. Is it coincidence that the state Department of Public Safety in its investigation of the Nov. 6, 2007 "incident" that killed three workers, reported that the boiler that exploded had not been inspected in a decade? Are there a decade's worth of repairs to catch up on?
As of Nov. 6, 2007, there was a backlog of 2,500 work orders. We can only imagine how many there are today.
Corporate America's life-extension plan for the Salem Harbor power plant continues to leave us vulnerable. Workers die - the ultimate sacrifice. Neighbors are startled awake fearing the worst from the slipshod corporate management in Richmond, Va., that is calling the shots.
Dominion should close up shop now and not drag workers and neighbors through its race for more profit before 2012 when new regulations will likely force a shutdown.
With duct-tape ingenuity this aging plant has been kept alive way beyond its life-expectancy. It's a blight on our community and it's time for it to go and be replaced by a 21st-century solution that will yield the taxes that Salem needs.
Dominion of Virginia, step aside and make way for Yankee ingenuity.

Patricia A. Gozemba
Salem

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Salem - The eyes of the world are focused on Salem, Mass., during the month of October, when tourists and news crews alike come in search of witches. As an ironic twist of history, they associate Halloween with the 19 people who were hanged here and the one who was pressed to death in the summer of 1692.
 But that is not the real history of Salem, which involves what occurred as a result of the witch hysteria - how a Puritan fishing town grew up to become a sophisticated and broadminded city. The real history of Salem demonstrates a legacy of tolerating differences and using reason and common sense in social and religious matters. Salem learned from its mistakes and the dangers of making decisions based on spurious or spectral evidence.
 This is epitomized each year with the giving of the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice. The award was founded in 2001 to carry out the work of the Salem Witch Trials Tercentenary Committee. It has been given to courageous individuals who work for peace in Sudan and to two lawyers who defended "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay. The award is one example of how Salem has learned from its mistakes.
 In 1692, very few were brave enough to step forward and question or denounce the spectral evidence that was used to convict and execute innocent people. Rev. Nicholas Noyse, one of the agitators during the Witch Trials who fanned the flames of religious hysteria, was the minister of the First Church and held the office that I currently occupy. Victims Giles Corey and Rebecca Nurse were members.
 Since the time of the witch trials, the First Church has been a great promoter of religious understanding and the use of reason. The only minister to welcome the Roman Catholic French immigrants was William Bentley of the First Church, and Salem's first synagogue was welcomed by members of the church.
 We here in Salem still know that people are always in danger of succumbing to "spectral" evidence, of making decisions that fly in the face of good judgment and common sense. These days, Salem residents hover beneath the shadow of looming smokestacks from our local 1950s vintage coal-fired power plant.
The best and the brightest scientists in the world tell us that climate change will become one of the defining challenges of the 21st century and yet we ignore the increasingly dramatic warnings and live as if that coal-fired plant will continue producing power well into the future.
 Climate change and its effects will only grow exponentially in the next five to 10 years and yet Salem benefits from and hosts this outdated contraption, which compromises our health and contributes to the problem.
 The plant not only threatens the health of those who live within view of its unsightly stacks. This November, we will remember three men killed in a blast last year as a result of a safety inspection oversight, later condemned by the state of Massachusetts.
 James Hansen, a senior scientist for NASA, is calling for a moratorium on coal-fired electricity production. Indeed, he believes that we have a window of 10 years to make dramatic cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, all of us in this country must reduce our carbon emissions by 80 percent or more by 2050.
 Hansen has testified that given what we know, any company that builds new coal- or oil-fired electric generators will be regarded by future generations as committing a crime against humanity. He believes the CEOs of major oil and coal companies will be held accountable and will need to recant their involvement just as the Witch Trial judges did on Boston Common in the winter of 1692.
 Salem once again has an opportunity to learn from its mistakes and perhaps serve yet another time as a symbol for this country. Hopefully this will involve moving towards a more sensible and sustainable future.
    Jeff Barz-Snell is the 31st minister of the First Church in Salem, Unitarian. He serves as president of Salem Alliance for the Environment and has been personally trained by former Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Project. He is earning a master's degree in public policy and climate change at Tufts University.

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