Letter to the Editor

Editor:

Newly emboldened by the war in Ukraine and its exposure of the world’s energy crisis, supporters of the proposed Renovo gas-fired power plant have launched a misleading PR campaign to try to convince potential investors that support for the plant is nearly universal. A recent editorial in the Renovo (sic) Record even included a photo resurrected from a time, many months ago, when testing was being conducted there, to suggest that construction is already underway at the site.

Construction at the plant has not in fact begun.

Support for the plant is not universal.

The proposed plant is a bad idea, from beginning to end.

Supporters’ editorials try to make the point that this plant offers the last remaining hope for the contaminated rail yards on which the plant will be sited, and that building the plant will somehow render those contaminants harmless.

This is far from the truth. Testing was performed at the Renovo rail yards between July 2015 and February 2016 to assess “to what extent past operations had impacted soil and groundwater at the site.” I have read the resulting reports. Toxic metals and chemical organic compounds (including lead, antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, benzene, naphthalene, cobalt and manganese) were discovered throughout the site, many at levels greater than the acceptable standards.

The final report concludes that “unacceptable risks to human health” exist at the site, and that construction workers and utility workers are especially susceptible.

There is no plan for site remediation. Instead, “Engineering Controls” will be put in place in the form of concrete slabs poured over the top of the soil. They promise to be careful in their soil-handling operations. And besides, there will be a fence!

These plans are clearly inadequate. The heavy contamination at the site will be mobilized during the two and a half years of construction, putting the workers — whose money we’re so eager to pocket — in danger of exposure. Dust will be raised as well, putting Renovo residents themselves in danger of exposure as contaminants enter the air and settle on the skin.

So this is the town the railroad built — and then abandoned. And this is the baggage the railroad left behind. A contaminated site, a brownfield, whose contamination is simply being hurriedly covered over to make room for a power plant that will, in turn, produce additional pollution.

For those of us who love this area, the power plant is far from our last remaining hope. The developers rushed into a short-sighted and misguided plan too quickly, taken in by the promise of jobs. With vision, the rail yards could be transformed into something useful and beautiful — into a place that does no harm.

Karen Elias
Lock Haven PA