Aug 12, 2003 By Steve Ostrosky 4 min read

CUMBERLAND TWP. – Members of the township zoning hearing board came full of questions Monday night for developers requesting two special exceptions to construct an $800 million state-of-the-art power facility in Nemacolin. Officials with Wellington Development of Fairmont, W.Va., outlined their proposal to the board for the power plant and discussed why they needed the special exceptions to conduct resource recovery on two parcels of land totaling almost 155 acres.

Developers want to construct a 525-megawatt power station on the former Nemacolin Mine property and use mining waste from a 20-mile radius to produce electricity.

One of the parcels is zoned A-1 (Agricultural) and the other is zoned I-1 (Industrial), but both require the special exception because resource recovery, which is what the company plans to do as part of finding material for burning at the power station, is not permitted in those zones.

Nemacolin’s gob pile would be the first to be recovered and reclaimed for the plant and would provide four years of fuel for the facility, according to Bill Derby, Wellington managing partner.

“We want to get rid of 125 million tons of waste and make it into useable electric energy,” he said. “These piles represent an environmental liability of $200 million that would take the state 50 years or more to clean up.”

Derby said the plant would have an average of 900 workers during its three-year construction phase, employing up to 2,000 people at construction’s peak. The plant will use the latest in clean coal technology and will incorporate pollution controls and will be one of the cleanest in the nation, he said.

“This will be a very remarkably clean facility and will set the standard in the United States for clean facilities,” Derby said.

During the two-hour hearing, Ann Bargerstock, Greene County director of planning and development, was the only person other than the board members who asked a question. She inquired, based on comments from people she has spoken with recently, as to how the ash produced from the facility will be handled and what it contains and what contaminants would be entering the Monongahela River.

Derby said the ash that is produced would be non-combustible material and would be a product that would form a cement material that would look similar to concrete material for sidewalk building. He said the ash would be taken to only approved landfills by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and water would be taken from the river and treated for cooling before returned to the river.

Board member Robert Korcheck asked about the Nemacolin sewage treatment plant, which is slated to be included in the parcel for development. He asked whether the power plant would tie into the sewage plant, but company officials said they would be developing their own system and would not require the entire parcel for the plant.

“We feel there is a lot of nice riverfront property that we could do something for the community with,” Derby said.

Member Ruth Smith said she was concerned about plant emissions, saying that there has long been rumored a link between emissions from Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station and a higher than normal number of cancer deaths in the township.

Derby said the plant will be unlike any other in the nation, and will solve the problems that Hatfield’s may or may not have caused.

Most of the coal waste and new coal will be brought into the site by barge, but officials admitted that some may come in and out of the plant by truck if it is more economical through that mode of transportation.

Mike Jones of Wellington told the group that approved plans from the state and federal government for mining the coal finds and reclaiming the properties are needed before any work can be done on them. Dust will be controlled as part of a required dust control plan and will mean less dust than is currently entering the air now, he said.

The company estimates that between 1.8 million and 2 million tons of ash will be produced annually, with as much as possible being used as byproduct in surrounding states.

After hearing more than two hours of testimony, the board voted to adjourn the meeting without taking any action and will meet again Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. to discuss the issue further.