Page 10 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, August 2, 2019 Revere City Council, residents address Wheelabrator noise issue By Alexis Mikulski R GE: “We test our engines in Lynn and sometimes it is at night” do. EVERE - Wheelabrator, a waste to energy facility located in Saugus, is under fire for causing Revere residents excessive noise disturbances and possible health hazards. At the City Council meeting on Monday night, citizens and council members went back and forth trying to determine the root cause of these issues and a possible solution. According to its website, Wheelabrator has 25 facilities located in the United States and United Kingdom. They generate electricity by using an assortment of waste fuels, including waste wood and waste coal. One of their main goals is to “protect the health and safety of the communities they serve” – their highest priority. However, not everyone believes they are living up to this standard. “If this facility were to be proposed anywhere else in the United States of America, I believe with the existing safeguards they don’t have down there it would be denied,” said Revere Ward 5 Councillor John Powers. “There is a meeting with the Board of Health in Saugus on August 6. I anticipate to go to that meeting, and whatever voice I can lend to end that situation down there I certainly will,” he said. Throughout the meeting, residents lined up to voice their complaints against Wheelabrator and demonstrate the noise disturbance by personally recorded iPhone clips. A loud, droning noise could be heard from these cell phone speakers, with many comparing it to the sound of a roaring jet engine.There were also multiple conversations about the possible detrimental effects Wheelabrator has on the public’s health, with cancer being a key word brought up on multiple occasions. But is Wheelabrator just to blame for all of these problems? Some council members think there are more parties at fault. “Wheelabrator is no longer making the noises and now it’s coming from General Electric, which is right next to Wheelabrator,” said Revere Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky. “If we’re going to go after Wheelabrator, we need to go after General Electric also. I question the legality of us going into another town,” he said. But some Saugus residents who live closer to Wheelabrator than their Revere neighbors have stated in the past that Wheelabrator has been unfairly blamed for noise that has come from the nearby General Electric plant in Lynn, just down the road on Route 107. Both plants are located in the industrialized section of their respective municipalities. A few weeks ago, MassDEP, also known as the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, went down to Wheelabrator and did not find any issues with the current situation. They performed a surprise investigation at General Electric and did find problems. General Electric Aviation is located in Lynn, and the facility is responsible for building and testing jet engines. Due to this, some think the noise could be coming from General Electric instead of Wheelabrator. But that is something that Councillor-at-Large George Rotondo says is unlikely. “I think it’s very low considering the time in which this happens. Every time someone has contacted me, it’s been at night,” said Revere Councillor-at-Large Roton“I do not believe, based upon what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard by driving up to the facility while this was going on, that this was from GE; it’s from Wheelabrator,” he said. “Period. No guessing – my car and myself went up there … That being said, I don’t know when GE tests their planes, but I suspect they probably do it during the days, if they test planes at all.” The Revere Advocate reached out to General Electric’s corporate headquarters in New York to find out. Rich Gorham, a spokesman for General Electric in Lynn, responded on Thursday by stating, “We do test our engines in Lynn and occasionally at night; it just really depends on the production schedule.” For now, the City Council voted to continue this investigation until further information is available.
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