Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Care community health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long.

"All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gotta come out here quick,' " said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va.

Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole place reeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover.

"I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So we went outside. And Aggie said, 'Kay, I'm going to be sick.' But before I get in, to get something for her to throw up in, she had to go over the railing," she said.

Nothing like this had ever happened in the 20 years that Allen has been at the clinic. After about 45 minutes, she thought the coast was clear and took everyone back inside.

"It was fine. But the next thing you know, they're calling me again. There was another gust. Well, the one girl, Miranda, she was sitting at the registration place, and you could tell she'd had too much of it. And Miranda got overcome by that and she passed out," she said.

'It's The Unknown I Think That's The Scariest Thing'

This sort of thing has been happening for weeks. Mysterious gusts of fumes keep wafting through the clinic.

In fact, just the day before being interviewed by NPR, Allen suddenly felt like she had been engulfed by one of these big invisible bubbles.

"And all of a sudden your tongue gets this metal taste on it. And it feels like it's enlarging, and it just feels like you're not getting enough air in, because your throat gets real 'burn-y.' And the next thing I know, I ... passed out," Allen said.

Half a dozen of Allen's co-workers stopped coming in. One old-timer quit. No one can figure out what's going on. For doctors and nurses used to taking care of sick people, it's unnerving to suddenly be the patients.

"It's the unknown I think that's the scariest thing," she said.

As two energy companies — Footprint Power and Dominion Energy — negotiate in relative secrecy over the possible sale of Salem Harbor Station, the rest of us can only wait with great interest for the result.

Barring some unanticipated event, Dominion is expected to close the power plant permanently sometime during 2014. The 60-year-old facility is currently running only two of its four generating units and is relied on only part-time by the regional power grid.

Richard Rinehart, who runs the rural clinic, can't help but wonder whether the natural gas drilling going on all around the area may have something to do with what's been happening.

In its heyday, the station produced 745 megawatts — enough electricity to power 750,000 homes. Its four oil and coal-fueled generators also emitted roughly 3 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

Over the decades, as America has steadily passed laws to halt the pollution of our air and water, fossil-fuel plants like Salem's have had to improve their equipment and controls to reduce or capture the damaging heavy metals and gases that are exhaust byproducts of oil and coal combustion.

As circumstances stand now — and they could change — Dominion has said that it will not invest further in the technology required to upgrade the plant's environmental controls. Stricter emissions laws and the general outdatedness and inefficiencies of the plant, are combining to make its closure likely.

Footprint Power has expressed interest in the 65-acre site and has proposed to build a new 720-megawatt, natural-gas-fueled generating plant there. The company has filed for a permit from ISO New England, the regulatory entity that manages electrical capacity across the regional power grid.

While it is disappointing to imagine that a new power plant may reside on the site for another 60 years, it is possible that no other use — at least in this economic climate — can generate the profits that would provide for the dismantling and removal of the existing power station.

The New Hampshire Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a measure sponsored by a local lawmaker that would ban the sale of baby food products containing the chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA.

For Rep. Brian Murphy, R-Rye, and the bill's supporters, getting the bill this far has been, to borrow the phrase from baseball legend Yogi Berra, a case of “déjà vu all over again.” Last week he saw the Senate Commerce Committee give House Bill 1182 an “inexpedient to legislate” recommendation by a 2-1 vote. The measure had passed in March with bipartisan support by a 41-vote margin, 166-125.

“I'm not entirely sure what I witnessed,” Murphy said of the Senate committee vote. Murphy said before the committee voted, it took final testimony from a paid lobbyist from the American Chemical Council, which is opposed to HB 1182 because it seeks a full national guidelines on BPA for baby-related products from the Federal Drug Administration.

“I guess where I am frustrated and a little disappointed is that the committee let an out-of-state paid lobbyist speak last instead of constituents on a public health issue unique to New Hampshire,” Murphy said.