"LNG Terminals" Details
Nahant is the little white pile of rocks at left center in this chart. One of the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals is east and slightly south of Nahant; the other is east and slightly north. Both LNG terminals are in a small triangle of ocean surrounded by Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (NMS), two state ocean sanctuaries, the Boston Harbor shipping lanes and the precautionary area. An extraordinary 79 out of the 350 endangered North Atlantic right whales still left alive -- that's 22% of the entire species -- were detected in April, 2008 in Cape Cod Bay and the area covered by this map. This map is a part of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the Neptune LNG terminal.
Click here or on the map above to view a larger version.
SWIM Hearing Testimony
Safer Waters in Massachusetts (SWIM) testified a public hearing in Beverly on the NPDES monitoring permit for the second liquefied natural gas terminal, proposed by Neptune LNG. The testimony included the following
statement:
"Although SWIM has focused here on monitoring and the effect on the whales, other major concerns include the presence of toxic, chemical, hazardous, and radioactive wastes in close proximity to the new LNG terminals; the effect on the fisheries; the proximity of three ocean protected areas, including Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary; safety in case of an LNG spill/explosion or a terrorist attack; the lack of a regional energy plan that would accentuate renewable and alternative energy sources as well as conservation, and the danger of a disabled tanker drifting to shore in a major storm.
"The North Shore was fortunate that no blizzard with high winds occurred when the liquefied LNG tanker Catalunya Spirit lost propulsion recently off Cape Cod and was towed to the site of the new Northeast Gateway LNG terminal. A Nor’easter at that time could have wrecked the Catalunya Spirit on our shore, and once ignited it could have...obliterated Nahant."
Radioactive Wastes in Massachusetts Bay?
An additional note on LNG: There is a very informative article at the Boston Firefighters website, www.bostonfirelocal718.org about the potential of an LNG tanker to cause destruction. It also has a reference to the Sandia National Laboratory report, which gives more technical detail.
www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/storage/lng/sandia_lng_1204.pdf
During World War II uranium was purified and processed by Metal Hydrides in Beverly, just north of the Salem-Beverly bridge, for the Manhattan Project to build the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs.
Safer Waters in Massachusetts (SWIM) wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on May 7, 2007, asking for information on dumping of radioactive wastes in Massachusetts Bay. The NRC replied on August 14, 2007, saying that "the only Atomic Energy Commission licensees located in the environs of Massachusetts Bay were the General Electric Steam Turbine Generator manufacturing facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
(VIEW THE LETTER FROM NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION TO SWIM)
Apparently Metal Hydrides never had a license to dump. Whether this means that they dumped without a license, whether it means they had no wastes (unlikely) is not clear from the NRC information.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. SWIM believes it is important to monitor for radioactivity during construction and operation of the new offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, since it is a documented fact that radioactive wastes were dumped there in the 40s and 50s.
References
The map below shows the location of the proposed LNG terminals, between three ocean sanctuaries. The diagram shows how LNG tankers would be attached to anchors by chains that can scour the bottom, potentially uncovering old radioactive wastes.
Click above to view a larger version.
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