Like COVID-19, severe heat waves are not an equal opportunity health threat. The most disinvested neighborhoods — those dominated by buildings, pavement, and parking lots — are hit the hardest. The built environment of these places absorbs and traps heat, creating a “heat island effect” that makes them dangerously hotter than other neighborhoods while worsening their air quality.
“Brookfield’s unwillingness to do the right thing on the Kennebec is unacceptable,” said Sean Mahoney, who directs the Conservation Law Foundation’s Maine advocacy center.
“On this day, the right whales gave researchers a unique view of their lives; spending gentle, quiet time together, possibly making new right whales. The whales were also seen skim feeding on plankton, and nursing calves, possibly conceived in SAGs more than a year ago.”
We should reimagine what can and should be built at the heart of the downtown Boston waterfront through the twin lenses of equity and resiliency—framing that was not a key priority when the current harbor plan was developed. The opportunity to protect the waterfront as a public asset and to make it a place where all Bostonians feel welcome does not come often. Let’s take it.
The water is used in the plant for cooling, and “waste heat from the boilers ends up in the cooling waters, which are then discharged,” as Irwin explained. Impingement occurs when fish are sucked up and smashed into grates in the river meant to prevent logs and other debris from entering the plant. Oftentimes, the delicate fish are killed on impact.
We are back in a world where the federal government is leading on climate change. New Hampshire needs to follow.
“They took a process that should be very public and very predictable and made it one that happens with a lot of private conversations between developers and cities and the secretary (of Energy and Environmental Affairs),” Shelley said. “We don’t think that’s good policy.”
“The last thing the asthma capital of the U.S. needs is a plant spewing air pollution and further imperiling public health,” Caitlin Peale Sloan, interim director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Conservation Law Foundation, said in a statement. “Springfield residents made their opposition to this polluting plant clear, and DEP officials have handed them a win today. “
“This has been a long and contentious road to reduce nitrogen pollution in the estuary,” Paly said. “After many, many years, it’s really gratifying to see municipalities coming together, working more collaboratively with CLF and other stakeholders to start down a new path, and hopefully the estuary will be the better for it.”
“Nitrogen pollution is a scourge on our Great Bay estuary, including the many bays and rivers that are part of it,” Melissa Paly, Great Bay-Piscataqua Waterkeeper at CLF, wrote in a separate statement. “This agreement gives the communities surrounding Great Bay flexibility in how they will reduce this harmful pollution, but also accountability to ensure real progress.”
