Residents opposing power plant send loud message
By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com
With the potential construction of a gas-powered power plant in Elizabeth Township under consideration, more than 100 people from the Pittsburgh region spoke out against the project Tuesday night during a virtual public hearing held by the Allegheny County Health Department.
About a dozen people joined the fight at the West Newton Gymnasium during a public viewing of the hearing hosted by the Mountain Watershed Association and The Environmental Integrity Project.
The county’s health department will decide if the plant’s parent company, Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, is awarded its air quality permit, which would bring the company one step closer to building the plant, currently projected to be located in Smithdale along the Youghiogheny River.
Residents who oppose the plant cited increased air pollution, lower home values and the possibility of plant failures as reasons they don’t want to see it built in their community.
“The Allegheny Health Department has the right to require additional emissions testing and needs to hold Invenergy responsible for the health and safety of the public,” West Newton resident Joanne Hall said at the hearing. “It’s time for the health department to step up and require Invenergy to continuously monitor the air quality in the environmental justice communities of West Newton, Sutersville and Smithdale. We need to have a voice and we need to be protected.”
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