Company proposes gas plant
A New York company wants to build a 536-megawatt, natural gas-fired power plant on the property of the former Nemacolin mine in Cumberland Township.
The plant, which will be developed by Hill Top Energy Center LLC of Huntington Bay, N.Y., will be constructed on property off Thomas Road that was the site of a proposed coal waste-fire power plant.
Hill Top applied for an air quality permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection for the plant in September. The application is in the technical review stage, DEP spokesman John Poister said.
The company also advertised its intention to apply to DEP for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for water quality management. That application has not yet been submitted to the agency, Poister said.
A legal notice regarding the water quality application notes the permit is needed for a discharge of cooling water used as part of a cooling tower system. Water will be withdrawn from the Monongahela River, used in the cooling system and then returned to the river, the notice said.
Information provided by DEP regarding the air quality permit application indicates the plant will consist of a natural gas-fired combustion turbine, heat recovery steam generator and a steam turbine. The plant will burn only pipeline quality natural gas.
The plant also will have selective catalytic reduction equipment to reduce nitrogen oxides emissions and oxidation catalysts to reduce carbon monoxide and volatile organic compound emissions, the application said.
The company plans to begin construction early next year provided all the necessary permits are received. Construction is expected to take 30 months.
A Hill Top spokesman could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
Poister said the plant is on the “small side” in regard to natural gas power plants. DEP recently approved permits for a plant almost twice its size in Westmoreland County, he said.
The property is in an environmental justice zone, which means public meetings will be held as the project moves forward, he said.
Company officials met with the township several months ago to discuss the project, Cumberland Township zoning officer Ann Bargerstock said. The project will meet the requirement of the zoning ordinance, Bargerstock said. The zoning for the property had been addressed in 2003 when plans were being proposed for the coal waste-fired power plant, she said.
The property on which Hill Top’s proposed plant will be constructed is owned by Greene Energy Resources, Bargerstock said.
Greene Energy is affiliated with Wellington Development WVDT LLC, which had planned to build the coal-waste burning plant.
Wellington Development proposed building a 525-megawatt plant on the property in 2003 that would burn waste coal from the Nemacolin and nearby coal refuse piles.
The company described its project as a “resource recovery” project that would turn mine waste into energy and reclaim more than 500 acres of abandoned mine lands.
The project would reduce air pollution from the coal refuse piles, many of which are burning, and reduce water pollution in area stream caused by runoff form the huge waste coal piles, the company said.
Wellington received its initial air-quality permit in June 2005. Plans for the project moved forward for a number of years but faced legal challenges from environmental groups in state and federal courts. The company received its last, five-year extension on it air quality permit in April 2011, before finally dropping the project.