Hatfield smokestacks demolished, marking end of coal-fired era
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
One of the 700-foot twin smoke stacks at the Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station tumbles on Saturday morning as part of a demolition project conducted by FirstEnergy Corp. In all, three smoke stacks were demolished.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The 540-foot emissions scrubbing tower at Hatfield’s Ferry Power Plant was the first to be imploded Saturday as part of FirstEnergy’s demolition plan. The twin smoke stacks behind the fallen tower also were leveled.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Three smoke stacks at Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station were demolished Saturday. This 700-foot-tall tower was the last to fall, after it initially did not collapse.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The third smoke stack at Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station implodes on Saturday morning. The 236-acre site, owned by FirstEnergy Corp., will be cleared and used for future development.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A towering smokestack at Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station’s shuttered coal-fired power plant near Masontown falls, heralding the end of the era of coal-fired power generation there.
A demolition contractor on Saturday morning imploded the three towering smoke stacks at the FirstEnergy Corp.’s shuttered Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station in Monongahela Township, Greene County.
Strategically placed charges planted around the base of the emissions stacks toppled two of the stacks within seconds.
The first attempt to implode the third stack – one of the twin stacks that stood more than 700 feet tall – failed, but after a 20-minute delay, crews detonated the explosives and knocked down the structure.
The demolition was part of FirstEnergy’s plan to prepare the 236-acre site along the Monongahela River to be sold for redevelopment.
The plant’s two massive cement hyperbolic cooling towers are scheduled for demolition later this summer, followed by the boiler house in the fall.
Cleanup of the site will continue through 2024, said spokesperson Lauren Siburkis.
Hundreds of onlookers, many of them former employees of the now-defunct coal-fired power plant, watched from viewing spots around the surrounding area as the imposing stacks slowly fell and were engulfed in clouds of dust.
A group riding all-terrain vehicles perched on a hillside above the plant, while others parked their trucks and cars along roadsides to see the demolition.
For a community whose identity was tied for generations to the facility – in its heyday, the plant employed about 450 workers – the moment the smokestacks came down marked the end of an era of coal-fired power generation there.
“I had a lot of good years with a lot of good people here,” said Chuck Nyland, who worked for 13 years for a scaffold company that contracted with the plant.
He said his brother, who recently passed away, worked at the plant for 38 years before retiring in 2010.
“I have a lot of good memories here and did a lot of hard work. To see it go down in minutes is depressing. But I believe since it will never run again it needs to come down. It’s an eyesore,” he said.
Samuel l. Belcher, Senior Vice President of Operations for FirstEnergy, said the removal of the stacks “is an important step in positioning the site for future economic productivity.”
“Level tracts of vacant land along navigable rivers are a rarity in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” said Belcher.
Cleanup of the site is expected to be complete by the end of 2024.
The power plant for which the stacks were built shut down in 2013, more than four decades after it opened in 1969.
The 540-foot-stack, which was connected to the plant’s environmental scrubbers, was the only one in operation at the time of Hatfield’s closure.
Said one lifelong Carmichaels resident, “Ever since I have been alive, the stacks have been here. Before (the plant) closed, you’d see these big plumes of smoke coming from them. It is going to be weird to drive past here and see them gone.”
There are currently no plans for the property once the power plant is demolished.
North American Dismantling Corp., the primary demolition contractor, began working at the sprawling plant last year, and has made headway, removing smaller structures and ductwork.
The demolition and clearance project is expected to cost in the tens of millions of dollars, Siburkis said.
FirstEnergy said several break-ins and thefts have occurred at the plant since its closing.