filed: February 23, 2012 • Massachusetts

Quincy mayor pulls plug on Moon Island wind turbine

Credit: By Lane Lambert, The Patriot Ledger, www.patriotledger.com 23 February 2012 ~~

QUINCY — Mayor Thomas Koch is asking the city of Boston to withdraw a proposal to build a 400-foot wind turbine on Moon Island.

In a letter mailed Thursday to hundreds of Squantum households, Koch said Quincy can’t take part in the power-generation project because opposition has become too great.

“Over the last few weeks, it has become clear to me that the kind of strong community consensus necessary to allow construction of a major wind turbine on Moon Island simply does not exist,” the mayor wrote.

The city has now cancelled a follow-up hearing scheduled for Feb. 28.

Moon Island lies within Quincy’s city limits but is owned by Boston. The island has long been a source of friction between the two cities – notably over the presence of a Boston police gun range and traffic to and from city programs on Long Island through Squantum.

Engineers said Moon Island was an ideal site for a turbine, and they noted that it would be almost a mile from the nearest Squantum homes. But more than 100 Quincy residents packed a Feb. 8 planning board hearing, objecting to construction truck traffic and the turbine’s possible impact on property values and health.

In his letter Koch said he began talking to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino about the turbine two years ago as a way to improve relations between the two cities. Quincy and Boston had planned to make money by sharing sales of power produced by it.

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