What Are Your Top Salem Power Station Concerns?

The natural gas plant slated to replace the coal-fired facility at Salem Harbor Power Station will be smaller, cleaner — and much better looking when all is said and done.

On Tuesday, city residents attended to a public hearing at Bentley Elementary School to learn more about Footprint Powers' plan to transform the site into a mixed-use area that will not only power the region, but also provide berths for big cruise ships.

The main outlines of the project will be well known to most Salemites. The old coal-burning facility will be all but razed, then replaced on a much smaller scale by a gas-fired power plant. Much of the 65-acre plot would be available for uses other than the plant, which would take up only 22 acres.

Toward the Blaney Street side, docks capable of accepting large cruise ships are envisioned. Between the plant and the adjoining sewerage facility, industrial uses are expected.

The new plant would have one smokestack in place of the current facility's three. And that stack would be less than half the height (230 feet) of the tallest existing one (492 feet).

So, we have to ask: what are your top concerns regarding the redesign?

Let us know in the comments section below.