Future Power PA LLC is seeking a special exception for its proposed $300 million power plant in Good Spring.
The company previously received a zoning permit for a coal gasification and power facility in November 2009. However, plans changed in 2012 when Future Power decided to use natural gas instead of coal.
According to the application, the zoning hearing board had also already told the company in July 2013 that the approval for the coal-powered facility was valid regardless of fuel source. That permit will expire July 2.
Attorney Shawn Gallagher, of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Pittsburgh, representing Future Power PA, told the county zoning hearing board that the zoning ordinance for the proposed location does not explicitly permit or prohibit the type of power plant the company wants to build in Good Spring.
Michael P. Witzing, project director for Future Power PA, said the natural gas facility is “less intensive” than what the company originally wanted to build and the other uses permitted under the zoning ordinance. That is mainly due to no longer needing part of the facility to turn the fuel into gas, he said.
The county zoning hearing board said they will make a decision at its next meeting on June 2.
Future Power will start seeking construction funding through bank loans later this year, Witzing said. Once funding is secured, then construction will start. Witzing said the permit is generally good to break ground within two years, but extensions are also available.
EmberClear Corp., a Canadian-based energy developer with an office in Moosic, started the project several years ago and then partnered with Tyr Energy, Kansas City, Missouri, in 2014 to finish developing the project. Tyr Energy currently owns and manages 12 power facilities.
The proposed Good Spring project is located on 83 acres between Main Street, Porter Township, and Route 125, Frailey Township. Natural gas will be supplied by the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, which is part of the $3 billion expansion of the Transco transcontinental pipeline. The Transco expansion just received preliminary approval Thursday from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Designs for the power facility include a building with administrative offices, an operational control room, warehouse and a machine ship; a water treatment building; a circulating water chemical feed building; a chemical laboratory for conducting water samples; a fire water pump house; steam turbine generator enclosure; a gas turbine generator enclosure; an emissions monitoring enclosure; and an electrical switch gear building.
There will also be a 7 foot high, chain-link fence around the facility with barbed wire, locked gates and security cameras.
Once built, there will be about 20 employees at the facility. Up to 250 construction workers will be used to build the facility.
“We always try to find local personnel,” Witzing said. “We want people from the surrounding communities to work there.”
The plant will be subject to federal and state statutes and regulations enforced by a number of agencies, including the state Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Schuylkill Conservation District, Susquehanna River Basin Commission and ReliabilityFirst, according to the application.
Future Power is still obtaining several permits for the facility. They include an air quality permit, national pollutant discharge elimination permits and a groundwater withdrawal and consumptive use permit. Tammy Saltzman, Good Spring, said she lives about half a mile from the proposed facility. She told the board that she would like to see more studies about the impact the power plant will have on her community and the environment.
“We understand her concerns and are committed to the community,” Gallagher said.