Proposed Power Plant ‘Not Good’ For Newark, Essex Commissioner Says

NEWARK, NJ — Another local government body in North Jersey is pushing back against a proposal to build a new power plant in Newark.

During their meeting earlier this week, the Essex County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a symbolic resolution, opposing the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s (PVSC) plan to build a natural gas power plant at its wastewater treatment facility at 600 Wilson Avenue in Newark. The long-running proposal is part of a resiliency blueprint that sprang up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

“The Ironbound section of Newark is a robust and densely populated community that has been burdened with an overwhelming amount of hazardous and pollutant factories and facilities,” Commissioner Robert Mercado said.

“The long-term effects of a gas-powered fire plant will have a tremendous impact on the quality of air and health conditions of the residents in the area,” Mercado said. “Furthermore, the estimated increased emissions will be in direct opposition of the goals of the Clean Air Act.”

“It is just not good for the Ironbound,” he added.

According to a joint statement from the board of commissioners:

“For more than 150 years, residents of the Ironbound section of Newark and Newark have had to endure the negative results of environmentally hazardous factories and polluting facilities including the Port of Newark, major highways, the PVSC sewage plant and Newark Liberty International Airport. Last September in Newark, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law major state environmental justice legislation, S232, designed to protect vulnerable communities from polluting facilities, including gas-fired power plants such as this one proposed by the PVSC.”

“The Board of County Commissioners is not opposed to the resiliency of the treatment of sewage, but encourages the use of renewable energy-based hybrid microgrids that may better serve the needs of PVSC while eliminating virtually all air pollution emissions,” Mercado said.

“Rather than building power plants, we should be preserving land, building parks and supporting community centers,” he said.

POWER PLANT PROPOSAL: WHAT’S THE DEAL?

During Superstorm Sandy, the PVSC wastewater facility in Newark was flooded, spilling billions of gallons of raw or partially-treated sewage into the Passaic River. Read More: Superstorm Sandy Caused Flood Of Excrement In New Jersey 10 Years Ago

Since then, the PVSC has rolled out a sweeping series of renovations to avoid future calamities. Part of that plan includes building a plant which would provide backup power to their wastewater treatment plant if the grid goes down.

If approved, it would be the fourth gas-burning power plant in a community that already struggles with harmful levels of toxic air pollution from decades of environmental racism, advocates have protested.

• See Related: NJ Activists Fight 2 Proposed Plants: 'Stop Dumping On Newark'
• See Related: Essex County Trash Incinerator Unfairly Burdens Poor, Critics Say
• See Related: Waste Processing Plant Off The Table In Newark; Aries Nixes Plan

The PVSC has maintained that the plant will use state-of-the-art emission controls and will have a “negligible impact to the community.” But while advocates say they understand the need to build resilience in the face of the climate crisis, the agency should do so with a solution that “prioritizes as much renewable energy as possible and doesn’t involve a new, dirty energy power plant.”

Several local government bodies in nearby towns and cities have since passed resolutions against the proposed power plant, including Alpine, Bayonne, Hoboken, Jersey City, Kearny, Livingston, Maplewood, Secaucus, Union City and Weehawken. See Related: More NJ Towns Oppose Power Plant Proposal In Newark

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was among those to sign a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy expressing their “strong opposition” to the power plant plan in February. See Related: Put The Brakes On Power Plant In Newark, 20 NJ Lawmakers Say

Other officials who signed the letter were state senators Sandra Cunningham, Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Shirley Turner, Andrew Zwicker and Patrick Diegnan, and state assembly members Annette Chaparro, Angela Mcknight, Clinton Calabrese, John McKeon, Thomas Giblin, Mila Jasey, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Sterley Stanley, Daniel Benson, Raj Mukherji, William Moen Jr., Britnee Timberlake, Sadaf Jaffer, Angelica Jimenez and Pedro Mejia.

The sewerage commission released a statement in response to the letter, defending the proposal and saying that it "continues to fully explore clean energy alternatives for the facility." Read More: Sewerage Commission Defends Newark Power Plant Proposal, Cites Sandy

“The Standby Power Generation Facility is a critical element of the resiliency plan to prevent the environmental and public health hazards that the entire community experienced during and as a result of Superstorm Sandy,” a PVSC spokesperson told Patch.

“As a natural gas facility with state-of-the-art emissions control equipment, the facility will only be used for emergencies when there is a loss of power and to prevent critical equipment from shutting down,” he said, adding:

“The PVSC is planning to integrate solar and batteries as part of the project, as well as for wider operating purposes, with the potential for renewables to be a contributor to PVSC’s power supply. The PVSC is also working with Siemens, the manufacturer of the turbines that would be used to operate the facility, to transition the fuel used in the turbines from natural gas to a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen and then to 100% hydrogen, in accordance with all state and federal guidelines to reduce carbon emissions.”

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