Feb 29, 2008 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

The developer of a planned waste coal-burning power plant in Greene County began construction within a state-mandated timeframe and did some additional work in 2007, an attorney for the company said Thursday. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Pittsburgh by several environmental watchdog groups claiming the developer’s construction permit expired is the latest in an effort to derail construction of the plant, said Brendan Collins, an attorney representing Wellington Development.

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued Wellington a permit to build the Greene Energy Resource Recovery Plant at the former LTV Nemacolin Mine site in Cumberland Township on June 21, 2005. The permit required Wellington to begin construction by Dec. 21, 2006, according to the DEP.

Foundations for the plant were poured on Dec. 7, 2006, and some site preparation work was done in 2007, Collins said, adding that Wellington has not yet been served with the complaint. Construction will resume this year, he said.

Some of the groups that filed the suit Wednesday were among those that challenged the permit in 2006 and unsuccessfully appealed the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board’s November 2006 decision to uphold the permit.

The National Parks Conservation Association, Group Against Smog and Pollution, Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed the suit Wednesday. All of them, except the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, were involved in the earlier action against Wellington.

“They’re grasping at any measure to impede construction,” Collins said. “We’re confident the challenge will be found to lack merit.”

The suit is the groups’ attempt to challenge what constitutes the commencement of construction and another challenge of the emission controls the state has approved for the plant, Collins said.

The environmental groups unsuccessfully appealed the environmental board’s decision to grant the permit and the DEP’s approval of Wellington’s emission controls to Commonwealth Court in March 2007. The court ruled in Wellington’s favor the following month.

“DEP and the court already ruled the emission controls in the permit are best-available technology,” Collins said. “Just the same stuff in a different package.”

Waste coal, which contains rock and other materials removed from coal when the coal was first mined, produces half the heat and more pollution than mined coal, according to court documents from the April 2007 ruling.

The $1.3 billion plant would produce 525 megawatts of electricity by burning 7,300 tons of reclaimed coal from “gob piles” and coal refuse sites in Greene, Fayette and Washington counties, according to Wellington.

The coal that would feed the facility’s two boilers would consist of 85 percent waste coal and 15 percent mined coal, according to Wellington.