by Thor Jourgensen/The Daily Item

Revere -- Revere officials oppose a power plant proposed for construction a mile from three local schools.

A public hearing on EMI Chelsea’s plan will be held Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Chelsea High School, 299 Everett Ave.

City Councilors voted to oppose the plant’s construction last month after Ward 4 Councilor George Rotondo pointed out the plant’s proximity to the McKinley, Garfield, Lincoln and Beachmont schools attended by 2,300 students on weekdays.

Rotondo said the plant’s low-sulfur petroleum fuel source poses risks to over 640 local students who have asthma. He said carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and increased ozone released from burning oil to generate electricity “all contribute as asthmatic triggers.”

EMI Chelsea wants to start building the plant in December and complete it by June 2009. The plant’s main facilities include an 89 foot-tall building housing two turbines and other equipment and two, 135 foot-tall smokestacks.

Three liquid storage tanks holding water, oil and other fluids would be located on the 6.5-acre site. The land EMI wants to build on is bordered by the Chelsea River, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail tracks, the Gulf Oil storage site and Glyptol, a paint manufacturing plant.

EMI plans to supply electricity generated by the plant through NSTAR’s Willoughby Street power supply substation.

The company is filing an environmental study, but Rotondo and his colleagues want the plant’s potential impact on the health of Chelsea and Revere residents studied.

“They have not looked at the smallest particles of air pollution which can be the deadliest — causing asthma, cancer and other life-threatening diseases,” Rotondo said.

State Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein also opposes the plant’s construction. She said her concerns about its potential emissions parallel her worries about pollutants released from the RESCO trash facility in Saugus.

“Putting a power plant near a school in a very condensed neighborhood raises concerns for me. That is an area already blighted with the Tobin Bridge and the airport,” Reinstein said.

School Superintendent Paul Dakin agreed, noting McKinley School is located a half-mile from the plant site.

“At this point in time I don’t think it is a good idea. Any plant like that has implications for potential problems for health and wellbeing. It also poses catastrophic problems that can happen in any kind of power plant in an urban, congested area,” Dakin said.