Niles and Warren to provide water to Lordstown power plant, Warren to provide sewage treatment

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

The mayors of Warren and Niles say both cities will provide the Lordstown Energy Center with 2.5 million gallons of water per day.

For Warren, it will mean $1.8 million per year in water sales and about $2 million annually for Niles.

Warren also will bill an estimated $600,000 annually for wastewater treatment.

Bill Siderewicz, president of Clean Energy Future of Massachusetts, said the $900 million in financing will be complete in the coming months, and he expects the first construction to begin in December.

The plant, which will use natural gas to produce 800 megawatts of electricity, is expected to begin operations in May 2018.

One of the first phases of construction will be 1,000 pilings being driven into the ground to provide a stable base for plant components, some of which weigh 600,000 pounds, Siderewicz said.

A news conference took place at the 17-acre site where the plant will be built in Lordstown Industrial Park on Henn Parkway off state Route 45.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin said selling the additional water should stabilize the rates for Warren’s existing customers. The city currently sells about 12.5 million gallons per day and takes its water from Mosquito Lake.

The city lost its biggest water customer when RG Steel closed several years ago. It used about 1 million gallons per day, so the power plant will more than make up for the loss of that customer, Franklin said.

Niles is part of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, which gets its water from Meander Reservoir. MVSD sells about 20 million gallons of water per day, said Ralph Infante, Niles mayor. That is down from about 27 million gallons sold per day about 10 years ago.

Siderewicz has said the plant will have a $1.45 billion impact on the Mahoning Valley in its first 25 years and will produce 450 construction jobs for about three years, then 26 permanent jobs.