Robinson Power Co. has lost the air quality permit to build a waste coal-fired power plant in Robinson, Washington County.

The DEP announced Jan. 20 that it revoked the permit after determining construction of the Beech Hollow power plant had lapsed for more than 18 months.

Robinson residents and North Fayette neighbors concerned about the energy project's potential health, environmental and financial risks applauded the decision.

"We were very pleased to see the DEP holding the developer to the letter of the law," said Jennifer Iriti, co-chairwoman of North Fayette grassroots group Action for Change Today.

Robinson Power officials may choose to appeal the DEP decision, submit a new air permit application or revise plans for the site, company spokesman Joe Pezze said.

"We don't necessarily agree with the department on their position," Mr. Pezze said. "However, we're evaluating how to proceed."

Construction plans call for a 272-net-megawatt power plant occupying part of a 777-acre site owned by Champion Processing Inc. and bounded by Routes 22 and 980 and Candor and Beech Hollow roads.

The land, a few miles from the Allegheny County line, contains about 38 million tons of waste coal, or gob, that would be burned to generate electricity.

"We still think that this is an extremely viable project," Mr. Pezze said. "And it's a big environmental cleanup project. And so we anticipate something will be done out at the facility. It most likely would be a power plant, but [there] could also be other methods that could be looked at to do a few other things with that refuse."

Work completed at the site includes land preparation, road construction and underground piping installation, he said.

In October, the company provided the DEP with documentation of their construction activities, he said.

Those documents, along with DEP site inspections between April 2008 and October 2009, revealed the absence of construction work on the power plant for 18 months, invalidating the air quality plan under federal and state law, the DEP said.

The DEP is reviewing a separate mining permit application, but to proceed with the project, Robinson Power must apply for a new air permit.

Lisa Graves Marcucci, an outreach coordinator for the Washington D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project, began working with concerned Robinson residents soon after the DEP approved the original air plan on April 1, 2005.

That approval, she said, came just days before more stringent federal air pollution rules took effect.

"The fact that DEP did step up and rescind this [permit] -- and effectively make any new application fall under the new regulations -- I think that was the right thing for DEP to do," Ms. Graves Marcucci said.

Dr. Iriti said any new application would give North Fayette residents the chance to comment on the project.

"We welcome this as an opportunity for the community to become more educated and engaged, if the developer wants to move forward with the plant with a new air permit," she said.

Last year, awareness of the Beech Hollow project spread through North Fayette, where residents expressed concerns about risks to their health, air quality and property values.

Opposition and concern in Robinson, Washington County, has been ongoing for years.

Cathy Lodge, who founded the Robinson community group Residents Against the Power Plant in 2005, suggested that Robinson Power Co., headed by Raymond Bologna, could choose greener alternatives.

"If he has to create electricity," Mrs. Lodge said, "why can't he just use windmills? He doesn't have to contaminate our wells and our air."

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