Aquaria Water Talk Expected Monday

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--City Councilors plan to invite Aquaria desalination plant general manager Alfredo Andres to clarify information about meetings with developers of a 350-megawatt natural gas power plant after power plant officials claimed Aquaria had signed a deal to provide much-needed water for the project.
Councilor-at-large Thomas Brophy said after last night's City Council meeting members of the board expect to contact Andres today and request he attend the council's finance committee meeting next Monday, Oct. 3.
Brophy said he has been angry with Andres and Aquaria after hearing since last Thursday from officials and residents that Advanced Power-Brockton Power, the company trying to build the power plant, had issued a statement claiming it had signed a notice of intent with Aquaria for 1.7 million gallons of water to cool the proposed power plant's turbines.
Advanced Power released a statement following a hearing with the state Energy Facilities Siting Board Thursday, Sept. 22, when the Siting Board strongly reaffirmed its 4-3 decision in June by voting 6-1 last Thursday to deny the power plant its request to use the city's drinking water to cool its turbines--a critical issue in the plant's construction.
Advanced Power has not returned telephone calls or emails for comment since last Thursday.
"Until I read your story on the website I was going to blast him," Brophy said last night of Andres and Aquaria.
Brophy and other city officials had met with Andres and other Aquaria representatives last Monday, three days before the state Siting Board meeting when Andres assured council members Aquaria could not sell desalinated water to the power plant, because the power plant was not a wholesaler or official public water district.
Brophy said he and his fellow council members were livid after learning Advanced Power announced some sort of deal had been arranged with Aquaria after Andres told the board it could not sell water to Advanced Power.
In an interview with BrocktonPost.com yesterday morning, Andres said the only way Aquaria could sell water to Advanced Power is if Advanced Power began a series of permit requests at the state and local level that would begin with the state Department of Public Utilities to be designated a wholesaler of water.
Andres said there would be many other regulatory hurdles that could take Advanced Power years to meet, if ever.
(Please scroll down to read yesterday's interview with Andres)