Good news for all

The North Beaver Township Board of Supervisors is on board with plans to build a natural gas fired electric generation plant and substation on a 55-acre site along the Mahoning River near Route 551.

North Beaver Township held a public hearing and then approved land development, zoning and conditional use. Approximately 50 residents attended the hearing.

"Basically what that does is gives them clearance of the first hurdle, if you will, of local regulations," said Jim Gagliano, chairman of the North Beaver Township Planning Commission.

LS Power of St. Louis will now seek other permits at the federal, state and local levels, including air and water quality control measures from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

"There are certain ones that we need to get squared away, potable water provision, sewer service provision, and then we'll come back for final site plan approval," said Casey Carroll, associate project manager for LS Power.

Before the approval, a public hearing was held to answer questions and concerns from residents about the power plant. And LS did its homework, re-designing the plant around existing wetlands.

"Far from a cookie-cutter site, but managed to design a site that minimizes those wetlands impacts to under an acre," Carroll said.

The plan is to tap into an existing natural gas pipeline and use water from New Castle Sanitation to generate wholesale electricity to sell back to the grid. Construction alone will create up to 500 jobs over two years and about 25 permanent positions when the plant goes online in 2016 or 2017.

"It's still going to be a good thing, I think, in the area, as far as taxes for the school, the township and the county," said Bonnie Sue Casto of North Beaver Township.