Developers say tires-to-energy plant would be safe

Developers say tires-to-energy plant would be safe

Aug 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jim Carroll Erie Times-News, Pa.

Developers who want to build a 90-megawatt tires-to-energy plant in East Erie spent almost three hours Thursday trying to reassure about 50 community leaders, health officials and others that their project is environmentally safe.

But that message would have been a tough sell to the 30 or so people who gathered along West Eighth Street outside the Bel-Aire Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, bearing signs that said "Stop The Tire Plant."

Developers of the plant -- Erie Renewable Energy LLC, and its Boston-based parent company, Caletta Renewable Energy -- again presented plans for the plant they first proposed 17 months ago, this time at an invitation-only presentation.

The developers said Thursday that the science and technology the plant would have will enable it to turn 900 tons of scrap tires a day into electricity without presenting an environmental threat.

"It is going to be safe for the people of Erie?" Erie City Councilman Joe Schember asked at the symposium. Vic Gatto, principal of Caletta Renewable Energy, replied, "The answer is yes."

No one asked that question Thursday to members of Keep Erie's Environment Protected, the grass-roots environmental group that started battling the plans almost from the day they were announced. "It's a flawed business plan," said K.E.E.P. President Randy Barnes, pointing to the levels of emissions he said would come out of the plant's smokestack.

"Most people on the east side of Erie don't want it," said the Rev. Jerry Priscaro, a K.E.E.P. member holding his "Stop The Tire Plant" sign up for motorists. "We are going to fight it to the end."

But Thursday, the developers said they would offer more proof that their plant would be safe.

Consultant Joseph Pezze, of Pittsburgh, said the developers are willing to pay for a health-risk assessment for the plant, a study above and beyond the environmental review now being done by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Pezze said the company would pay for the study even though toxins in the plant's emissions would not reach the level at which the federal Environmental Protection Agency would require a risk assessment.

The study would be one more expense in the more than $300 million that developers estimate the plant will cost. The estimated life of the plant would be 30 to 35 years, they said.

The Erie Medical Society had called for an independent study on the health risks the plant would represent to the community, and opponents also have called for a risk assessment.

"What we most want is an independent health assessment done -- one that the medical society says is done properly," said K.E.E.P. member Dale McBrier as he handed out signs and green T-shirts to those at the march. "That would go a distance to help people understand this project."

Consultant Pezze and ERE President Greg Rubino said Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials asked the developers to undertake the risk assessment, even though one would not be required, because of the sensitivity of the project.

Andy Glass, director of the Erie County Health Department, said DEP has also asked the county agency to pay close attention to the project.

Medical Society President Dr. Nancy Weissbach welcomed the news of the risk assessment, but questioned whether it would be an independent study if ERE paid for it.

Rubino and Pezze said the study would be done by an experienced and respected scientist. They said the results would be reviewed by DEP, and suggested the Medical Society pay for a review assessment if its members wished.

Pezze, who worked for the DEP for 25 years before becoming a consultant, told local officials that the plant would be cleaner than others that are now being given permits to operate, and he compared it to others operating around the world.

Pezze said emissions in its environmental application were based on the "worst-case scenario." Pezze said motorists filling the tanks at Erie gas stations would put three times more benzene in the air each year than this plant would. The plant would release hazardous dioxins and furons, but less than one-tenth of an ounce of them a year, he said.

Glass, of the county Health Department, said one reason why plans for the plant may have created such fear and suspicion is that the public has accepted things in the past, only to find out much later there were unknown environmental hazards.

And that fear was evident among those protesting outside. "I live three blocks east of there. I already have asthma and I don't need anything more," said 79-year-old Mary Wheaton. "I'm worried about what it will mean for the children."

Developers said they still hope to win DEP approval by the end of the year, and the plant is still on pace to begin construction in early 2009 and be operational in 2010.