Wastewater plant sparks air quality debate

Air quality issues may be at the top of the agenda for health experts meeting today to discuss the proposed expansions to a wastewater treatment plant in Boston.

Wastewater officials have claimed that the Brockton power plant is almost certainly emitting more particulate matter than in the past.

Douglas Dockery, chair of the Environmental Health Department at the Harvard School of Public Health, described the pollution, which is made up of minute particles, as "insidious", alleging that it has been linked to "almost everything you can think of" in terms of health problems.

"[Particular matter] penetrates very deeply into the lungs," he told the Enterprise. "It can get past a lot of the normal defence mechanisms."

However, the city's siting board said that the plant's effect on local air quality was not of concern.

In related news, a wastewater treatment plant in California has become the first plant in the US to introduce a technique of generating renewable energy using leftover scraps of food.

Written by Claire Manning