The General Assembly's Environment Committee has given unanimous and bipartisan approval to a bill introduced by Danbury state Senator Julie Kushner that provides air quality monitoring assistance to towns like Sherman, Kent and New Fairfield that may have their air quality affected by the soon to be opened Cricket Valley Energy Center in nearby New York.  The bill now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration. 

Kushner says a baseline measurement needs to be established in order to see how air quality might be degraded in the coming years.  The 1,110-megawatt Cricket Valley Energy power plant is being built in Dover Plains, less than 10 miles from the Sherman Town Green, and less than 20 miles from New Fairfield Town Hall.  The plant, powered by natural gas, is expected to go online in mid-November. 

The  Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has conceded that Cricket Valley will contribute more pollutants into the air in at least a 50-mile radius of the plant, they just don’t know exactly where, and how much.