Oct 17, 2019 4 min read

The land development plan of a company proposing to build a power plant in Robinson Township is waiting on a vote by supervisors following a hearing on Monday.

Several of the 30 people who attended the meeting voiced objections to Robinson Power Co.’s application – including by pointing out that one of the supervisors and the father of another has an agreement with the owner of the proposed facility – before supervisors adjourned without taking a vote.

The company wants to construct a natural gas-fired plant on 59 acres between Route 980 and Candor Road.

Township solicitor Alan Shuckrow said the board has until Dec. 22 to make a decision.

Among the residents who spoke was Brenda Vance, who said the natural gas industry has built up infrastructure throughout the region with compressor stations and pipelines in addition to gas wells, contravening drillers’ initial promises that the disruptions would be minimal.

“My concern now is, what more is this going to bring? Every time a company comes in, they say this is what we’re going to do. And then six months from now it’s, ‘Oh, well, this is a support structure.'” Vance said. “It just grows and grows and grows.”

Vernon Wranosky, a project manager from the Kansas City, Mo., engineering firm Burns & McDonnell, said the main entrance to the facility, known as the Beech Hollow plant, will be from Route 980, with a secondary one off Champion Way, formerly known as Beech Hollow Road.

Robinson Power and Champion Processing Inc., which would own the site of the power plant, are family companies run by businessman Raymond Bologna, who’s floated several proposals over the years for a power plant there.

For the current iteration of those plans, the state Department of Environmental Protection first granted Robinson Power an air quality permit two years ago.

The company is seeking DEP’s approval to modify the permit.

“Although it is labeled as a major modification, this review must undergo the same regulatory scrutiny as a new plan approval application,” said agency spokeswoman Lauren Fraley. She said she couldn’t predict how long the review would take.

Among the changes to the plans is the addition of two pieces of equipment known as dew-point heaters to be located about a mile and a half away to help control the pressure of the gas being transmitted to the plant.

A map of those plans appears to show the proposed location of that apparatus on property belonging to Supervisor Chairman Rodger Kendall, who has a right-of-way agreement with Robinson Power.

Supervisor David Foley’s father, Putnam Foley, who owns property near Kendall’s, also has a right-of-way with the company.

Resident Cathy Lodge said the right-of-way agreements raised questions about whether the supervisors were acting for “self-serving reasons.”

“Township officials have an obligation to prioritize health, safety and welfare, not improve their own finances,” she said. “I firmly believe that consideration of this incomplete application is premature and should be denied.”

Kendall said the dew-point heaters didn’t come up in any of his discussions with Robinson Power concerning his agreement for the company to use his property.

“I do not remember that as being part of the conversation,” he said.

Supervisor Mary Donaldson said the zoning designation of the power plant as a “permitted use” predated her and her colleagues’ terms on the board.

Shuckrow said Kendall’s and Foley’s recusals from voting would leave only one supervisor who could vote. Because they can’t render the decision with just one vote, the ethics law allows the other two to participate as long as they disclose the conflict.

The board will likely follow the same procedure it during a preliminary vote last month, when Foley voted but Kendall didn’t, Shuckrow said.

“At some point they have to vote on this because it’s in front of them,” he said. “There are time limits under the law.”