Those of you who live in villages without a Neighborhood Area Council may not know what some of the things are that Area Councils (whose members are elected by the neighborhood’s voters) do. Here’s a prime example of how we spend our time when we could otherwise be binging on Netflix:
Newton is fortunate to have a first-rate medical facility within its borders. Newton-Wellesley Hospital, the large healthcare institution housed at the juncture of three of Newton’s villages, (let’s call it “Lower Waburndale”), is prized by all who need and use its community based medical care.
In December, as a member of the Waban Area Council, I attended our monthly meeting to hear about Newton-Wellesley’s plans to convert its present gas-fired hot water and steam heating boiler system into a co-generation power system supplying the hospital not only with its heat and hot water, but also with the ability to generate up to 95% of its own electric power under peak use. According to John Looney, N-W Hospital’s Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs, and Justin Ferbert, NWH Director of Facilities, Engineering and Maintenance, during the last two summers electric power shortages or outages have plagued the hospital and thrown the back-up diesel generators (which do not burn cleanly) into approximately 40 days of use. To ensure resiliency and to reduce electricity costs to the hospital, a savings estimated to be $1,000,000 annually, Newton Wellesley is planning to add two gas-fired turbine engines with a large switch to produce the electric power that the hospital needs on a 24-7 basis, allowing them to generate about 75% of the hospital’s annual electricity needs. Two of the three 600 hp high pressure boilers that were installed roughly 50 years ago have already been replaced with two new, more efficient gas-fired boilers with the same capacity. The third older boiler has also been replaced, but with a smaller 350 hp gas-fired boiler. The smaller boiler will allow steam generation at a lower rate when that condition is appropriate to meet the hospital’s needs and heat from the turbines that would be otherwise wasted will be directed to help supply a portion of the hospital’s needs.
Last night, the Waban Area Council, at its February meeting, heard concerns from over 50 neighbors about this change that Newton Wellesley Hospital is proposing. City Councilors Downs and Humphrey who were in attendance, answered as many questions as they were able, but there remain many concerns that have not yet been addressed. Newton-Wellesley Hospital has communicated with WAC President, Chris Pitts that they are planning a community meeting at their facility to share information about the specifications of the equipment that the hospital is proposing to use and to answer technical details raised by the highly educated neighborhood group of interested advocates who are forming a Task Force to bring their concerns before the hospital, the City and the State, in an attempt to ensure the safest and least environmentally damaging effect on the populations that will be affected by these proposed changes.
The issues of greatest concern are:
- The increase of noise that the turbines whirring 24-7 will have on neighbors and the need for a process to ensure no greater decibel levels than at present.
- The total increase in particulates injected into Lower Wabaurndale’s atmosphere from the extra natural gas combustion used by the two turbines.
- This concern is especially important because there are several elementary schools and a pre-school whose air quality will be negatively impacted. A local pediatrician spoke last night about the fact that youngsters (whose heart rates are faster than adults) are more negatively impacted by air borne particulates than adults, increasing rates for asthma and other respiratory ills and being responsible for an additional number of annual deaths attributable to the increased environmental assault of fossil fuel combustion.
- While the Federal EPA and MA DEP must test whatever gas-fired turbines are specified and chosen by NWH for this project to ascertain that they meet both Federal and State levels of governmental standards, those standards are not tailored to take into consideration the surrounding neighborhoods’ population age distribution or densities. Other hospitals that have switched to this type of co-generation (e.g., Leahy in Burlington, and Northshore Medical Center) are not sited in the middle of residential neighborhoods like Waburndale, with a growing number of young children.
- The neighbors also are concerned that the hospital seems not to have considered the use of renewable energy sources instead of installing a system for the next several decades that will increase their use of natural gas and add to carbon emissions in general. While it might be legal for NWH to do so, it might not be sensible for them to proceed with this part of the project as currently conceived.
- The pediatrician who attended last night’s meeting also pointed out that economic equilibrium for the use of fossil fuels vs renewables is about to be reached within the next few years, so it would be unwise and costly for NWH to sign onto a long-term fossil fuel contract.
- Even the Newton City Council is concerned about continued fossil fuel usage and is considering a Home Rule Petition to the State to allow Newton to ban new developments/builds in the City that propose using fossil fuels.
The Waban Area Council will post updates on this issue on its website: www.wabanareacouncil.org. If you sign up with your email address, you will receive notices of our monthly meetings, listing the various topics on our agendas. We always include an item called “Burning Issues from the Community,” during which issues of concern from the community are addressed. Feel free to join the Waban Area Council at our next meeting on March 12 at 7:30 at the Waban Library Center.
I do love “Lower Wabandale”
I couple of notes that seem to contradict comments made at that meeting:
* From a quick look at Google Earth, the two other medical centers mentioned (Leahy and Northshore) appear to be as much in a residential area as Newton-Wellesley.
* I’m not sure what schools were being referred to but the nearest one I can think of is Angier which is more than a mile away
It’s irresponsible for NWH to be considering the installation of new hydrocarbon generators in this day and age. But the emissions from these pieces of equipment ought to be the least of the neighborhood’s worries, given that a chronically-congested interstate highway lies 300 meters away, putting children and adults at significantly greater risk of adverse health outcomes including cancer, asthma, and heart disease.
@Michael – if someone is already at risk due to a something they have no control over, it makes sense to be worried about adding yet another risk. Especially when we are trying to decrease fossil fuel usage, not increase it.
There may be other reasons to not build a co-generation facility there but “the total increase in particulates” should not be a concern. Burning of natural gas generates virtually no particulates (i.e. the stove in your kitchen) and as Michael points out, if particulates in the air are indeed a concern the nearby highways are huge generators of particulates.
@Jerry: Some pretty well educated neighbors who have become or are already “experts” on the issue of “particulates” came to these meetings and spoke of the dangers of any increase to the total found in our local environment at present. As a medical health center, NWH should embark on a presentation that speaks to these worries with data showing clearly that there is no reason for alarm. I understand that they have agreed to a Community meeting soon. I, for one, think that their idea to become independent of the electric grid is a good one. I hope they can do it without any harm to the air quality.
What is the experience in the Longwood Medical Area with the MATEP. It’s been running since the late 1980’s. There should be a pretty good impact record and I would imagine that the technology has evolved over the past 30+ years.
I am sure that none of you will be affected by this until you need emergency surgery at NWH and there is no power. And I am just as sure you will voluntarily forgo surgery because of particulates. Just kidding. You won’t give a fig as long as you can get your surgery.
@Ted – there are good environmental reasons to question whether this is the best way for NWH to go (I say that as someone who is not in their neighborhood and is very appreciative of the emergency surgery I got there last year).
We all know that there are serious environmental problems with how natural gas is being collected (i.e., fracking) and with gas lines leaking greenhouse gases. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask whether there’s a more environmentally-friendly route NWH could take. If there truly isn’t, then this should definitely be approved, but is it really wrong to ask questions?
Questions are fine. Noise issue is real. But would folks prefer they continue to burn diesel for 40days a year?
I’ve not heard of any hospital relying on solar with battery for power needs. At best it would be a partial solution. Hospitals are huge power users and need steady and instant power.
I’m all for encouraging green use. But there is much lower hanging fruit of the green tree than this issue. Mandating rooftop solar on any new building in Newton would be a start.
As for the particulate matter issue, I’m no expert. But considering the other sources of it right next to the hospital, this feels like the immediate neighbors are super concerned about the change and are grasping at arguments to see what sticks. I’d do the same.
So let’s try and figure out the facts, and then make an informed decision for the entire community. I’d bet it is the noise issue that most concerns folks but perhaps that is my personal noise bias.
As has been pointed out, N-W is right next to Rte 95. What the hospital plans to do pales in comparison to the pollution spewed from this highway.
N-W is now a satellite site for MGH, providing very sick people access to top medical care without having to travel into Boston. Asking them to do so with inadequate infrastructure is a concern.
I wonder what the real issue is and suspect it’s noise in the area directly surrounding the hospital. Perhaps the people who will be directly affected by this new power source can sit down with N-W and discuss their concerns. As for the particulates, unless the traffic on Rte 95 is dealt with, the children at nearby schools will continue to be exposed to pollution.
Based on a few minutes of on-line research it sure looks like replacing 40 days of diesel generation with year round, more efficient, natural gas generation would lower the particulates in the air in the surrounding neighborhood.
I agree with fignewtonville. It sure sounds like the local opposition is based on other factors (construction disruption?, noise? etc) and that the pollution argument is either misguided or being used as a tool to throw in the way of the project.
Seems to me an alternative headline on this thread could have been “Why we need journalists.” It’s commendable that Sallee has brought this to our attention and that the area council wants answers. Answers are exactly what we’d have in the hands of the right journalist. We need an explanation of exactly what’s proposed, what it replaces, what the options, if any are, and most importantly independent experts who can explain proposed technology and risks, if any.
All I know now, is that I don’t know enough.
Oh, I also know that Newton-Wellesley already has an extensive solar roof array, because journalists.
To the extent the comments were reported accurately, the “local pediatrician” should stick to clinical applications of conventional wisdom.
The reported comment incorrectly asserts Hillel’s biblical hermeneutic for inference from a general principle to a specific as applicable to the healthfullness of youth in Lower Waburndale. Rules of evidence and statistics in 21st century mathematics and science does not work that way where populations are involved. To wit, sickle cell disease overwhelmingly occurs in people of African American heritage, but not all members of that community experience the disease.
There is no evidence of a cluster of distress among youth in Newton. Claiming that there is cause for concern, as s/he did, is a pure play for emotional logic to displace the logic of reason.
If s/he cannot put-up the statistics showing a cluster of distress here OR the medical science establishing causal linkage between in-air particulate matter and disease, plus local measurement of exposures to those particulates, and not merely correlation in other point studies, then they should withdraw.
I had to wait to comment on this thread to keep from being snarky – mainly because some of what Sallee says just confirms what I hear about Wabanites being arrogant and elitist in addition to Newtonites being called limousine liberals. These complaints seem to be generated by folks talking the talk – unless it’s near them.
Highly educated folks abound all over Newton – most of whom are generally willing to share their expertise without referring to their education status. Unfortunately being highly educated doesn’t mean much if it’s not the person’s field of study. And surely these folks who have been living with 40 days of the hospital operating on a diesel generator would welcome the change.
I haven’t heard much about the residents of Waburndale, but I like the name.
My second thought upon reading this post was “Much Ado About Nothing,” but it’s really much ado about NWH changing over to a tried and true method of generating electricity that is dependable, highly efficient and part of the pathway toward zero emissions.
A co-generation system, combining heat and power, includes a recuperator or heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to recover energy from the turbine’s exhaust and is a mostly closed system that can use a variety of fuels, including fossil and renewable based. Gas turbine combined-cycle systems reduce CO2 emissions and later can be converted to burn electrolyzed hydrogen.
When the wind blows and the sun shines, wind turbines and solar devices produce electricity, sometimes more than can be consumed. In the foreseeable future surplus renewable energy could be used to electrolyze water to produce hydrogen which could either be stored or injected directly into a natural gas pipeline system for use in a co-generation system.
@Greg: You stated: “Answers are exactly what we’d have in the hands of the right journalist. We need an explanation of exactly what’s proposed, what it replaces, what the options, if any are, and most importantly independent experts who can explain proposed technology and risks, if any.” If you are insinuating that I am not a journalist, you are 100% correct. I don’t pretend to be. If the Tab or Patch or Gail’s students or you, Greg, with your past journalistic skills, could research and report in an unbiased manner on this, I would be most grateful.I wrote this article for two reasons: 1) to let the V14 world know that the Area Councils provide a forum in which their residents can discuss and address local worries and concerns; and 2) to make more of the Newton world aware of the energy source change that this large institution in our midst had been making with little conversation with its surrounding, normally quite supportive, community. When this issue was brought before the WAC in December, the NWH spokesperson stated that NWH had no plans to hold a community meeting. As of last week our WAC President has indicated that NWH is now very likely to convene one. The Area Council facilitated that change, which seems very reasonable to me.
@Mary Presumptuous: Before we send the “local pediatrician” packing, please read his New England Journal of Medicine article, dated just a few weeks ago on December 4, 2019 and updated December 13, 2019, entitled “The False Promise of Natural Gas.” Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., is the local pediatrician who spoke at the WAC meeting on Feb 13th and his co-authors are Howard Frumkin, M.D., Dr. P.H., and Brita E. Lundberg, M.D. Their article argues that gas is not the benign energy source that some of us may have come to believe it is. No hermeneutics from him, but an article that comes with a supplementary appendix that compiles a reputably published body of knowledge.
@Marti Bowen: You stated: “some of what Sallee says just confirms what I hear about Wabanites being arrogant and elitist in addition to Newtonites being called limousine liberals. These complaints seem to be generated by folks talking the talk – unless it’s near them.” Really, Marti? Wabanites are no more elitist and arrogant than Village 14ers! You think that folks who live near an institution that is about to produce its own power don’t have a reason to question what consequences that could have on their environment? No argument that gas is better than coal or oil…but it may or may not be the best or only choice at this time to replace NWH’s electrical energy source with natural gas. If there are no better alternatives to consider, NWH should bring in the experts to make that argument. No consideration of any alternative that they may have considered was presented at WAC in December. No one from NWH has indicated to the neighborhood (as you have) that “in the foreseeable future surplus renewable energy could be used to electrolyze water to produce hydrogen which could either be stored or injected directly into a natural gas pipeline system for use in a co-generation system.” If stored hydrogen becomes available as the next energy source, I would want to know how close to my house the hydrogen tank was going to be stored! By the way, the speaker in December stated that the NWH system would definitely be using MORE natural gas after the conversion than before.
To quote Greg, again, “We need an explanation of exactly what’s proposed, what it replaces, what the options, if any are, and most importantly independent experts who can explain proposed technology and risks, if any.”
Sallee, these systems have been around for years powering large users of electricity. At this point they are among the most energy efficient and except for solar or wind or hydroelectric power, the cleanest burning.
Yes, the NWH’s new co-generation system will have gas turbines. Why would the reps from the hospital mention future renewable energy sources in a presentation of what the hospital’s plans are for now.
If in the future, there is the ability to switch to hydrogen, there would be no “hydrogen tank” – now that would be dangerous.
@Sallee: Meredith is right. No insinuations intended.
By the way, it’s “Lower Waburndale” as the moniker for Lower Falls, Waban and Auburndale,” since the three Villages converge there!
@Sallee Lipshutz: Having reviewed the article cited and surveyed the appendix for novel additions to the field, I stand by my earlier comment, now with greater substantiation of its central point.
And by way of my “by the way”, one might ask why the Trustees of Boston College are still listed in the Newton Assessors Database as running an oil-fired furnace at 29 Mayflower Road …
Things true in the general may not be true in the instance, I think. You might think that things asserted to be the way they ought to be, in general, ought not be so asserted in the instance.
@Sallee – I’m not sure how you saw a slur in what Greg wrote. He and other people on V14 have been bemoaning the loss of local reporting and the sorry state of the Tab for years now. Of course it’s not your job to be a journalist. But it is the job of the local paper to have journalists and editors who can do actual reporting, and it’s a major loss that we no longer have that.
@Marti – thanks for the explanation of co-generation and how flexible a system can be in terms of energy inputs.
@ Meredith: To re-title my article to “Why We Need Journalists,” while I was announcing WACs doings to V14, appeared to me to chastise me for not having dug up the answers (as an investigative reporter…which I certainly am not… might have done)to the questions that had been raised at the WAC meeting! I couldn’t agree more with Greg that we need reputable reporting in Newton and that we have lost it from our previously most reliable source as the Tab has deteriorated before our eyes.
As Sallee said, the most important is to gather information to make sure what NWH is planning does not impact the residents unduly.
I have approached three experts on Energy and Environment, hoping to get data on existing emissions and noise from the Lahey Clinic and the North Shore Hospital systems. I also heard that Harvard is planning a cogeneration system too. Lots of things to verify.
@Greg: Whew 😉
A gas cogeneration system should use less natural gas and produce lower emissions overall than continuing to rely on the grid and diesel backup. It may or may not mean lower emissions on site. I would expect onsite particulate emissions (Though not nitrogen oxides) to decline relative to 40 days a year of backup diesels.
However, a growing number of hospitals, and other large energy users, are implementing microgrids that combine solar, storage, fuel cells and smaller gas cogen systems that can be much cleaner, while also increasing reliability.
https://blog.se.com/power-management-metering-monitoring-power-quality/2019/07/18/hospital-microgrids-going-beyond-backup-generators-to-ensure-resiliency/
NWH May already have replaced too much equipment to make that feasible, but it is certainly reasonable to ask what cleaner alternatives were considered and still could be considered going forward.
@Sallee: Having read the article by the esteemed “local pediatrician”, most of the concerns cited have no bearing on the pollution risk at and around NWH. Most of the environmental issues raised in the NEJM article concern fracking, and NWH isn’t extracting natural gas, merely burning it. He also advocated for a total ban, extending all the way down to the kitchen stove and other household appliances. And I doubt that most residents expressing a concern are actively replacing the appliances in their house due to that threat. It should also be noted that cogeneration is a different beast than regular natural gas combustion, as cogeneration is more of a closed loop. So, while there are valid concerns about burning natural gas, they need to be put into the proper context when it comes to cogeneration.
@Alan: While hospitals are increasingly going towards – or, arguably, returning to – a microgrid strategy, it should be noted that those microgrids are built around a CHP (Combined Heat & Power) system, which is essentially the approach taken by NWH (especially given the solar array already sited on the roof of the parking garage). The mathematics of the problem leave very few options for supplying the power needs of a facility that size, when you consider the staggering amount of electricity used in day-to-day operations. Especially when you need something that won’t vary with the weather; NWH has to meet a certain minimum level of power generation no matter what happens, and a CHP plant is one of the few options that fits the bill. (Nuclear would be another, but until thorium-salt reactors become commercially available, the negatives outweigh the positives by a wide margin.)
As for what a transition might look like, MIT upgraded its central utilities plant a few years back. (https://powering.mit.edu/cogeneration-sustainable-choice) That move allowed MIT to fully shift to natural gas, reducing particulate emissions overall, and the system design contained the vast percentage (90%) of NOx emissions. I wonder if the expected overall increase in particulate emissions at NWH is due to the fact that NWH is moving to generate more of its power (and heat) on-site – if so, then there’s only so much that can be done about it given the original driving premise behind the move.