Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA) (pg. B03)  [Printer-friendly version]
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