Washington County power plant plan faces battle
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A proposal to build a natural gas-turbine power plant and a coal-refuse plant in Washington County represents the latest effort to reclaim the largest coal refuse pile east of the Mississippi River.
Robinson Power Co. LLC of Burgettstown had wanted to build a 272-megawatt waste-coal power plant in Robinson Township that would burn some 40 million tons of coal refuse at a 777-acre site near routes 980 and 22, near the border of Allegheny County.
But the company has decided to scale back the size of the coal plant and now also plans to build a gas-fueled plant on the same site. Both plants are expected to produce 150 megawatts.
Robinson Power applied to the state Department of Environmental Resources in September for an air-quality permit to construct a natural gas turbine plant at the Champion Processing Inc. in Robinson. The company also is preparing an application for a waste-coal sister plant.
Joe Pezze, an air consultant to Robinson Power, said the permit seeks approval for a gas-turbine plant that would be fueled at least in part by Marcellus Shale gas. The plant would use heat-recovery steam generation to increase efficiency and reduce pollution, he said.
He's also preparing a permit application for the waste-coal plant.
"Right now there is uncertainty whether a coal plant can be permitted," he said, noting tighter state and U.S. Environmental Protection regulations designed to lower pollution levels.
The two plants would produce 300 megawatts of electrical power at the site the DEP long has targeted for cleanup. Mr. Pezze said the $150 million gas plant would create up to 30 full-time jobs and 150 construction jobs and kickoff electrical generation at the site while the more problematic coal-plant application is processed.
The gas plant, he said, would be "extremely clean" with much lower pollution levels than the coal plant. But each plant would emit sufficient pollution to earn designations as major sources of pollution.
Mr. Pezze said the coal plant's 300- to 400-foot smokestack annually would emit 850 tons of sulfur dioxide pollution, along with 124 tons of fine particulates and 450 tons of nitrogen oxides from coal. The proposed gas plant would emit two tons sulfur dioxide from its 125-foot smokestack and 27 tons of particulates and 25 tons of nitrogen oxides.
First Published June 29, 2011 12:00 am
