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Another attempt to halt the plant
A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, seeking to halt construction of a proposed 525-megawatt, waste coal-fired power plant in Nemacolin.
This latest legal challenge follows a host of others.
The permit for the plant was issued by DEP in June 2005. It was appealed by several individuals and environmental groups first to the state Environmental Hearing Board and then to Commonwealth Court. Both ruled in the company's favor.
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Public Justice, a public interest law firm, filed this suit on behalf of the Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Group Against Smog and Pollution and Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The groups claim Wellington Development LLC cannot build the plant because its construction permit has expired and the plant does not meet current legal standards designed to ensure the lowest possible emissions of mercury.
A Wellington spokesman said this is just another effort to derail construction of the plant.
We agree.
DEP and the courts have already ruled the emission controls in the permit are the best available technology, so it appears to us these environmental groups are grasping at straws and tying up the courts.
The suit alleges the plant will emit "harmful levels of toxic mercury" and will damage air quality in the Shenandoah National Park. The coalition seeks to force the plant to update its expired construction permit and meet new, more stringent emission standards.
The billion dollar plant is expected to burn more than 3.1 million tons of waste coal annually from the Nemacolin, Isabella, LaBelle and Clyde coal-refuse piles.
Building power plants are not popular ventures, yet we have supported Wellington's efforts because of the company's commitment to use the best available environmentally tested methods to burn coal refuse.
Our position has not changed.
