Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA) (pg. B03), October 12, 2005

STATE PANEL REJECTS APPEAL OF INCINERATOR OVERHAUL

By John Luciew

With an $80 million update of Harrisburg's municipal waste incinerator nearly finished, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board has dismissed the last remaining appeal of the project, declaring the matter "moot."

Nevertheless, the International Ministers Conference of Greater Harrisburg, which filed the appeal, is vowing to closely monitor the incinerator as it begins test-firing this month.

A spokesman for the group said the case "sent a message" to the city and Mayor Stephen R. Reed that the ministers would "stand up" for the heath concerns of south Harrisburg residents who live near the plant.

"The community knows the IMC will speak up," said spokesman Reggie Guy. "The incinerator is a fact of life now, but we're going to monitor it."

The group had challenged the state's approval of the project to overhaul the closed incinerator, claiming environmental racism.

In response, lawyers for the Harrisburg Authority, which is building the burner, and the Department of Environmental Protection, which approved the project, filed motions insisting the appeal was both late and baseless.

The hearing board sided with the city, awarding summary judgment in the case. Specifically, the board ruled that the ministers group erred in not filing a second appeal after the city modified its original incinerator application and the state approved this second plan.

"We lost on a technicality," Guy said.

The ministers were critical of the incinerator's location in south Harrisburg, near neighborhoods with populations that are more than 70 percent minority. They charged that the project perpetuated environmental injustice.

But Harrisburg officials said that the city has operated a trash burner in the area for more than 30 years and that the plant opened when the surrounding neighborhood was predominantly white.

These arguments were never settled by the hearing board as it awarded summary judgment to the city based solely on the procedural deficiencies of the ministers' appeal.

The original incinerator closed in June 2003 because it could not meet stricter federal emissions standards. That fall, the state Department of Environmental Protection approved Harrisburg's plans to renovate the incinerator, and the city borrowed $125 million for the project.

Test-burning for the plant's three burners will continue for a month or more until all three burners are brought on-line. Emissions testing by DEP will take place in December.

The plant is scheduled to begin full operation on Jan. 2. The city hopes the incinerator will pay for itself by burning up to 800 tons of trash a day from Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties and beyond, and by generating steam and electricity for sale to utilities.

JOHN LUCIEW: 255-8171 or jluciew@patriot-news.com

Copyright 2005 The Patriot-News Co