Washington PA OBSERVER REPORTER Wednesday 8 December 2010: Nemacolin plant hearing draws crowd 12/8/2010
NEMACOLIN - The Nemacolin union hall was packed Tuesday for a public hearing on Wellington Development's application for an extension on the air quality permit the company received five years ago to build a waste-coal burning power plant in Nemacolin. Wellington is seeking an additional five years from the state Department of Environmental Protection to construct the 525-megawatt plant, which will burn waste coal from Nemacolin and nearby coal refuse piles. DEP has proposed approving the extension but is required to hold a public comment period on the application. The agency also proposed several modifying conditions to the permit including reduced emissions for some pollutants. Wellington received its initial air quality permit in June 2005. Bill Campbell of the engineering firm AECOM, who spoke on Wellington's behalf, said the company will be unable to complete the project in the initial five years because of litigation that was filed regarding the permit. Environmental groups unsuccessfully challenged the project before the state Environmental Hearing Board and through the state court system, he said. Campbell also noted the plant is being built with private financing which could not be finalized until the litigation was resolved. Campbell described the project as a "resource recovery" project, pointing out refuse piles from which the plant will take its fuel are currently burning, emitting pollutants into the air. In addition, many toxic chemicals in the coal waste are now being washed into area streams during rains, he said. The coal refuse will be burned with limestone and create an ash that will be used to reclaim the sites. The ash material will also "encapsulate" many of the harmful pollutants, Campbell said. "We're not fixing the world, but we're trying to fix 500 acres of it with this project," he said. Most of the people in attendance appeared to be in favor of the extension, judging from the applause received by those who asked it be granted. Those in favor, which included the United Mine Workers and the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters unions, spoke of the jobs the plant will create and the benefits of cleaning up the refuse piles. The plant will create 1,300 construction jobs, 70 full-time plant jobs and about 450 associated jobs in excavation, transportation and reclamation, the company said. Tony Brnusak of Masontown, a UMW miner, said he remembered a time when every house burned coal and he saw nothing wrong with it in the current plan. "These are good paying jobs," Brnusak said. He also spoke of the many coal refuse sites that dot the area's landscape. "These coal piles need to be cleaned up and these communities need to be beautified," he said. Ed Yankovich, international executive board member for UMW District 2, read a letter from UMW President Cecil Roberts supporting the project. Several speakers also opposed the plan saying it would only create more pollution and would fail to solve existing problems. Rachel Martin of the Sierra Club said the project would "replace one environmental harm with another" and alternatives for reclaiming the sites should be explored. Robert Jennings, an attorney for several environmental groups, said the company is required to use state of the art technology to control pollutants and if applying for a permit today might have to change its plan because of advances in technology during the last five years. Copyright by Observer-Reporter.
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p.s. Duane Nichols and Paula Hunt of MVCAC spoke in opposition to the permit renewal.