Jan 24 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jim Carroll Erie Times-News, Pa.

The first thing that the Rev. Jerry Priscaro of Erie did when he walked into the Iroquois High School auditorium Wednesday was sign a petition opposing the proposed 90-megawatt waste-tire-to-energy power plant for east Erie.

Priscaro was among about 400 people who crowded the high school auditorium in Lawrence Park Township for a meeting called by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and most people in the crowd appeared to share his opposition to the plant.

Developers and DEP regulators at the session explained the $235 million project planned on former International Paper land along East Lake Road. They cited the economic benefits that developers say it could bring and the environmental review process it would have to pass. But it was clear that most in the crowd who showed up to talk about the plant were worried about pollution and potential health risks.

"No other place in America wants a plant like this," Priscaro said after waiting his turn at one of two microphones set up for public questions.

The plant is proposed by Erie Renewable Energy LLC, and its parent company, Boston-based Caletta Renewable Energy.

Greg Rubino, president of ERE, and Vic Gatto, a Caletta co-founder and its chief operating officer, led a development team that sought to show the benefits of the plant and ease concerns.

Kelly Burch, northwest regional director of the DEP, outlined environmental requirements the plant must meet, and the review process for the air-quality permit application ERE has filed.

DEP spokeswoman Freda Tarbell, the moderator, said the meeting was called to meet "environmental justice" requirements. She said informational meetings are required to ensure that people are aware of what is coming when the census tracts around a development have 20 percent or more low-income residents or 30 percent or more minority households.

But it was clear that many residents knew about the plant.

The meeting came six days after a previous meeting hosted by the Erie County Environmental Coalition to explain the plans for the plant.

As they did at the coalition's session, Gatto and Rubino reviewed the nation's need for energy, the 60 good-paying jobs the plant would provide, the 140 spinoff jobs in related industries, and the potential for providing local municipalities and industries with reliable and reasonably priced electricity.

The plant has run into vocal opposition from Keep Erie's Environment Protected, a grass-roots group formed shortly after plans for the development were first announced in March. K.E.E.P. members had a booth set up in the auditorium to sell T-shirts and gather signatures on its petitions.

And most of the people who walked up to the microphones set up in auditorium aisles wanted to talk about those environmental concerns.

"I hear my constituents say they are concerned about the air quality and emissions," said Erie City Councilwoman Rubye Jenkins-Husband, the first speaker to take the microphone and one of a number of elected officials in the audience.

Joe Pezze, an environmental consultant for ERE, assured Jenkins-Husband that the emission controls for the facility are the best in the world. "The impact from this facility would not have an adverse effect on public health," he said.

But Marty Visnosky, a member and immediate past president of the Erie County Environmental Coalition, drew applause from the crowd when he criticized the plant as a shortsighted development and questioned how it would lead to improvement in the quality of life in Erie. "Who owns the air that this will discharge into?" he asked.

Some came with very specific questions. I.L. Coleman, of Erie, asked about past problems with scrap wires from the tires accumulating in the grates of the fluidized bed technology the plant will use and increasing pollution. Caletta engineer Ned Popovic said the equipment that ERE would buy from Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries has solved that problem.

Others, like K.E.E.P. President Randy Barnes, continued to challenge whether the plant would be able to run on waste tires, and how it would get the 800 to 900 tons of tires it would use a day to produce electricity.

Kelly Burch told the audience that the plant does not have to have zero emissions, but does have to meet standards set by the state.

Burch said it would take nine to 12 months to review the air-quality permit for the plant, and other permits would be required for waste and erosion and sediment control in building.

A more formal public hearing would be scheduled if regulators decide the application meets the required criteria and issues a draft permit.

Staff writer Steve Sweeney contributed to this report.