South Huntingdon residents maintain opposition to power plant

The revised air quality plan a Nebraska company submitted for its proposed $500 million natural gas-fueled power plant in South Huntingdon — a plan the company says will reduce air pollution — ran into the same opposition Tuesday that the old plan faced last year.

Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners LLC, an affiliate of Tenaska Inc. of Omaha, said that under the new plan, there would be fewer emissions from starting and shutting down the proposed power plant, and the facility's potential to emit pollution would be reduced from original predictions.

But opponents again told state Department of Environmental Protection officials that they don't want the plant in their neighborhood.

There still will be 1,635 tons of toxins spewed into the air each year, Cynthia Walter of Hempfield, a scientist and environmental activist, said during a two-hour public hearing and comment session in Turkeytown Fire Hall.

Tenaska has said the plant would generate 930 to 1,065 megawatts of power.

“Prove it to us if you think your plant is so great,” Walter, a St. Vincent College associate professor of biology, said during the hearing, which drew about 60 people.

The DEP has reviewed the revised air quality plan, and the modeling has shown that the emissions meet national standards, said Mark Gorog, regional manager for DEP's air quality program insouthwestern Pennsylvania.

Gorog said the agency has not done baseline monitoring of the air quality in the area around the plant, which would be built on about 50 acres of a 134-acre parcel south of the intersection of Route 31 and Interstate 70.

The emissions projections were lowered because new data from Mitsubishi, the manufacturer of the two natural gas-fired combustion turbines, showed that the plant would produce less pollution than projected in 2014, said Larry Carlson, vice president of environmental affairs for Tenaska. Emissions-control equipment and a 20 percent reduction in the number of annual startups and shutdowns of the power plant helped lower the emissions.

Several opponents voiced frustration about Tenaska selecting a site about a mile from Mendon Elementary School, near Ruffsdale.

The air pollution could blow in the direction of the school, affecting the students, Walter said.

“You have to monitor this to know whether it is safe or not,” Walter said.

Carlson said it would take extra work to maintain the monitoring equipment and made no commitment to do so.

Stephanie Novak, a community organizer for the Mountain Watershed Association, a Melcroft-based environmental group, said Tenaska should pay for independent monitoring at the school.

Tenaska's 2014 annual report showed it had $12.2 billion in gross operating revenue.

The environmental group, which monitors water quality on the Youghiogheny River, wants the DEP to revoke all of Tenaska's permits for the plant, Novak said.

Gorog said the department will include the request for an air monitoring station at the elementary school in the report it presents to DEP officials in Harrisburg.

William Catalina, a vocal opponent of the plan who in January 2015 sold his 5-acre property adjacent to the Tenaska parcel, said he opposed Tenaska picking a site near his former residence rather than at Westmoreland County's industrial park at Fitz Henry, which is in South Huntingdon.

The DEP will review comments from the hearing and accept written statements until Feb. 5. The agency could issue a decision on the air quality permit within a month of the Feb. 5 deadline, clearing the path tor Tenaska to begin construction, said John Poister, a DEP spokesman in Pittsburgh.

Opponents will have 30 days to appeal the agency's decision.

Tenaska, which has been developing plans for the plant since 2009, anticipates construction will start this year. It was postponed in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.