Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Ivan Piontek is the head of the Reliant Energy Citizens Action Group, an organization of people from Cheswick and Springdale formed in September to challenge noise and air pollution at the Reliant Energy plant in Springdale, shown in the background.

By Mike Bucsko
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ivan Piontek and many of his neighbors had their sleep disrupted and outdoor social activities limited this past summer because of the incessant loud hum from a fan at the Reliant Energy power plant in Springdale.

One person likened the noise to having a "helicopter hovering over your head."

By September, Mr. Piontek and others decided something had to be done. A half-dozen people in the area formed the Reliant Energy Citizens Action Group to address their concerns about noise and air pollution at the Reliant plant.

They lobbied the Springdale Borough Council successfully to revise its noise ordinance and held a public protest, which prompted Reliant to agree to a meeting with them. Mr. Piontek's wife, Debbie, is borough council president.

Momentum in the group has been building since the noisy summer. Six people attended the initial meeting in September and, two weeks later, 30 turned up. More than three times that many were at a community meeting last week in Springdale's municipal building to voice their concern to Reliant Energy representatives.

"Unfortunately, it seems like the [protest was the] only way to get their attention," said Bob Kristof, who lives near the plant in Cheswick.

The company announced last week that it had hired a West Virginia firm to help establish a citizens advisory panel, a sounding board for complaints and to make recommendations to the company. The first issue the panel will take up once it is formed is a recommendation to hire a sound engineer to gauge the noise level at the plant.

Ed Feith, Reliant's environmental director, acknowledged at last week's meeting that a "trying summer, technologically" led to "anger and mistrust" toward Reliant.

Reliant Energy installed a variable-speed fan in its power plant shortly after it took ownership. The fan is regulated by the level of production.

The fan is loud, but it was exceptionally loud this summer because its electronic control system broke and could not be fixed for months, Mr. Feith said.

As a result, he said, the fan ran loudly and continuously on high from late June until it was repaired last month, adding to the neighbors' consternation.

"We've put a lot of money and trouble into remodeling our house," Mr. Piontek said. "We have a patio on the back, but we couldn't use it because of the noise. When we tried to talk to the neighbors, we had to yell."

The repair was delayed because Reliant had to wait until the manufacturer of the fan's electronic control system, Siemens AG, had made a new system in Germany and brought the parts and technicians here to install it, Mr. Feith said. That happened just about the time of the citizen protest three weeks ago.

Reliant used to have replacement parts available to fix the fan, but the extent of the problem this time required Siemens to replace the entire system, Reliant spokeswoman Pat Hammond said from the company's headquarters in Houston, Texas.

Now, Siemens has trained workers at a subsidiary in New Kensington to fix the fan.

In addition to the noise, the neighbors have complained about pollution from the plant. People at last week's community meeting told of particles in the air and of an oily substance that appeared in swimming pools, on cars and on windowsills.

Reliant announced in July a major pollution-remediation effort with the installation of a $250 million gas desulfurization system, or scrubber. The scrubber is supposed to reduce particulate emissions by 62 percent, remove 98 percent of the sulfur dioxide from the plant's flue gas and remove 80 percent to 90 percent of mercury in the high-sulfur bituminous coal processed there.

Construction will begin next year, with the scrubber scheduled to be working in 2009.

Reliant Energy wants to be a good neighbor, Mr. Feith told the residents last week.

"Our goals are the same are your goals," he said. "We want to stop the noise and pollution."

The citizens group plans to continue to monitor the plant's operations and its effect on the neighborhood. Reliant's recent overtures to the community are promising, as is the company's arrangement to establish the citizens advisory panel, Mr. Piontek said.

"With this new group they want to form, I think it might be a good thing. We'll keep an open mind."

The power plant, near the Allegheny River at the Cheswick/Springdale Borough line, has been in operation since 1970. It was operated by Duquesne Light Co. for most of that time, but it has changed hands twice in recent years. Duquesne Light sold to Orion Midwest; Orion sold it to Reliant five years ago.