MRE receives final air permit

Ohio EPA surface water and solid-waste division permits are still needed.

staff report

ALLIANCE — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued its final air emissions permit to Mahoning Renewable Energy for its controversial proposed $250 million waste-burning electric power plant in Smith Township, Mahoning County, near Alliance.

The proposed plant, to be located on a 30-acre site at Transload America’s Central Waste landfill, 12003 Oyster Road, would burn municipal garbage and construction and demolition debris.

The air permit sets smokestack emissions limits to ensure compliance with federal clean air standards and protect public health, and the permit requires the use of the best available technology to restrict pollution, the state EPA said Tuesday in a news release.

The permit limits the following pollutants: particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, lead, sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, dioxins and furans, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid, cadmium, mercury, hydrogen fluorides and ammonia.

Despite those restrictions, Robert Stuhlmiller, president of SAN-CORP Liner Technology in Alliance, which produces food wrappers and pill-bottle inner seals, delivered to the Mahoning County commissioners late last year 175 petition signatures against the proposed waste incinerator, whose emissions he said could contaminate his company’s plant.

Last month, the Mahoning County Solid Waste Policy Committee directed Jim Petuch, county recycling director, to draft a letter to the Ohio EPA and the county commissioners expressing concerns about potential air pollution from the proposed incinerator.

Ohio EPA air permit requirements are strict; the plant will feature the most advanced air pollution control equipment available; and it will emit 60 percent less greenhouse gases than a typical coal-fired power plant, said Gregory L. Benik, president of Jefferson Renewable Energy LLC, of Warwick, R.I., the firm that would design and operate the plant.

Building the facility would generate 250 construction jobs, the company said. Operating it would create 60 full-time jobs paying an average of $50,000 a year, generate reliable electricity, promote recycling of up to 20,000 tons of recovered metal annually, and conserve landfill space, company officials said.

Anyone wishing to protest the granting of the air permit has 30 days to appeal to the Environmental Review Appeals Commission, the Ohio EPA said.

The proposed plant will also need permits from the state EPA’s divisions of surface water and solid and infectious waste management. The state agency said it will schedule a public meeting and consider public comments before deciding whether to grant those permits.