Somerset residents raise noise, pollution concerns at Prysmian meeting
SOMERSET — Prysmian is hoping to move one step closer to starting construction on its planned manufacturing facility at Brayton Point by getting the state to sign off on its anticipated environmental impact, while residents have lingering concerns over issues including noise and air pollution.
Prysmian Group, an Italian manufacturing company, is planning to construct a manufacturing plant on 47 acres of the 300-acre site at Brayton Point that formerly was home to a coal-fired power plant. The plant will produce underwater cables that will be used to bring electricity generated by offshore wind turbines into the electrical grid.
On Jan. 3, the company submitted its Final Environmental Impact Report to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office. On Thursday, Feb. 2, the company held a public meeting in Somerset to discuss the report. About 50 people filled a room at Fairfield Inn & Suites for the meeting.
Plans for the facility
The plant at Brayton Point will cover around 800,000 square feet and will include the manufacturing facility itself, a dock for ships picking up the completed cable and a tower, along with other, smaller buildings such as testing laboratories.
The 600-feet-tall, 80-feet-wide tower is part of the manufacturing process, with incomplete cables brought up inside the tower to be coated with insulation. Prysmian representatives said that using a tower allows them to apply insulation to the cables more quickly and with less wasted material that doing it horizontally. The cooling towers at the former Brayton Point Power Plant were about 500 feet tall.
The planning dock will be 1,500 feet long and 13 feet wide, with about 18 feet of space below it at high tide for smaller vessels to pass underneath.
Ships will arrive at the plant to pick up completed cables up to 10 times each year, staying docked near the plant for 10 days each time.
Traffic and construction impact
Construction on the plant is planned to start during the second half of this year, with the site intended to become operational in 2026.
There will be about 14 months where construction overlaps with construction done by SouthCoast Wind, which is planning to build a substation on Brayton Point for a nearby wind farm. Elizabeth Grob of VHB, a civil engineering firm working on the project, said on Thursday that Prysmian has coordinated with SouthCoast in an attempt to minimize the overlap.
The completed plant will have “minimal impact” on local traffic, Grob said. Workers will primarily arrive there for shifts starting at 6 a.m., 2 p.m. and 10 p.m., not at peak rush hour times. Trucks involved with construction will also avoid major roads like Route 103 as much as possible, she said.
For years, Brayton Point residents decried air pollution in the area caused by fly ash, a material used to make concrete. Representatives for Prysmian said on Thursday they have not yet determined if concrete will be made on site during construction and said they would have to coordinate with the project’s contractor to decide that.
Noise concerns
Several residents raised concerns about noise levels, mostly caused by the diesel-powered ships coming to pick up completed cables.
Ed Souza, a Brayton Point resident and former supervisor at the old power plant, said the power plant had a committee dedicated to addressing local concerns about noise and other disturbances and would sometimes shut down overnight operations if too many noise complaints came in. He asked if Prysmian would be willing to do the same.
Representatives for the company said work is planned to happen 24 hours a day, but that they plan to have someone on site to respond to concerns and questions about issues including noise levels.
Residents were also worried by the plan to use ship-to-shore power to load completed cables from the land to waiting ships, rather than using a power source on the shore that would allow ships to kill their diesel engines while the cables are being loaded. They said noise from the ships would disturb nearby neighborhoods.
Representatives for Prysmian said it would not be possible from an engineering standpoint to use shore-to-ship power to load the cables, which several residents pushed back on.
“I think the neighborhood is gonna object. It has to be shore-to-ship power,” said resident Patrick McDonald. “I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Mario Gallo, Prysmian's Industrial Processes Director, said the process would be quieter than the older diesel ships residents have likely heard in the past, although he and other representatives for the company were unable to name an exact decibel number to describe the anticipated noise. They did say they intend to continuously monitor sound levels and be responsive to resident complaints.
“We’re aware of the sound issue. We’re trying to get a handle on it,” Paul Vigeant, a local consultant for the project, said.
MORE: Baker announces offshore wind awards — millions coming to New Bedford, Somerset projects
Public comment period open until Feb. 10
Residents have until Feb. 10 to submit public comments. Comments can be submitted via email to alexander.strysky@state.ma.us, online through the MEPA Public Comment Portal or in writing to Secretary Bethany A. Card, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Attn: MEPA Office, Alexander Strysky, EEA No. 16554, 100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02114.
The Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office will then have until Feb. 17 to approve the project.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Somerset residents raise noise, pollution concerns at Prysmian meeting
