#6- First Energy shutters Mitchell and Hatfield’s Ferry power stations
Two of the region’s longtime power stations became powerless stations Oct. 18.
FirstEnergy Corp. pulled the plug on Mitchell Power Station in Washington County and Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station in Greene, putting 380 employees out of work. The Akron, Ohio-based company announced the decision July 9, three months ahead of closure,
Coal was the culprit again. FirstEnergy deactivated the coal-fired plants because of the high cost of bringing them into compliance with current and, likely, future Environmental Protection Agency standards.
This was another roundhouse right to the once proud and prodigious Mon Valley, which over the past 30 years also has endured the demise of steel and other heavy industries. Now these electricity-generating sites, along the Monongahela River, are gone along with most who worked there. Mitchell, in Union Township, was built in 1949, Hatfield’s Ferry opened in 1969 in Monongahela Township, near Carmichaels.