LORDSTOWN — A state regulatory agency is being asked to suspend a permit authorizing the owners of Trumbull Energy Center to build, operate and maintain the more than $1 billion natural gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown.

An eight-page complaint filed with the Ohio Power Siting Board claims the energy center is not in compliance with a certificate the board granted in October 2017, and asks for an order requiring the facility to comply with Lordstown’s site plan review and zoning permit processes.

At the heart of the complaint filed by village attorney Matthew M. Ries is zoning — that the siting board approval was based on the project site being zoned industrial when much of the site is zoned residential.

The company filed a request with the village in February to rezone the site, which, according to the complaint, predominantly consists of 34.7 acres that is zoned residential, but village council rejected the request in June after hearing concerns from residents.

“Despite this, TEC proceeded with construction on the residentially zoned land,” the complaint states. “This is one example of many in which TEC has acted in violation of the OPSB certificate … .”

The village issued a stop work order June 9, but the complaint states the energy center “refused to cease construction and has responded that it intends to continue construction of the facility” despite the approval being granted “on the basis that the project site was already zoned industrial and that the surrounding areas are similarly zoned industrial.”

Other matters raised by Ries in the complaint filed July 24 include a well to access the village’s water system being drilled without approval of the village, Trumbull County Combined Health District, the Ohio Department of Health or the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Drilling the well, the complaint claims, violates village ordinances and is not authorized in the siting board’s certificate.

The complaint also alleges the energy center never provided detailed engineering drawings of the final project design to the village, does not appear to have an environmental consultant on site, is violating a wetland buffer and is engaging in construction outside the hours listed in the certificate.

RESPONSE

The company has until Aug. 22 to file a response to Lordstown’s complaint.

Steve Remillard, chief operating officer for Trumbull Asset Management, declined to comment on the complaint, but wrote in an email “we will continue to operate transparently and cooperate with the appropriate agencies. We will continue to comply with all rules and regulations. And we will continue to move forward with construction.”

“We remain fans of Lordstown, of Trumbull County, and of the entire Mahoning Valley. We are happy to be investing in this community,” Remillard wrote.

Trumbull Asset Management is the Mars, Pa.-based company formed by the project’s equity investors — Korea Southern Power Co., Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp. and Siemens Energy’s Power Development & Investments — after the three acquired the project last year from developer Clean Energy Future of Massachusetts.

Work at the site has been underway for several months. At peak construction, the site would provide more than 600 jobs, Remillard said previously. When the plant is operational, it will employ about 22 full-time workers.

Guy Coviello, president / CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said, “The hundreds of construction jobs, the significant growth of our tax base, especially Lordstown schools and village, and the charitable nature of this corporate leadership all bode well for our entire community.

“Like the village, we feel it is extremely important that projects move forward in ways that are fair and equitable for everyone, and in a manner that follows an appropriate process. That seems to be exactly what is happening,” he said. “The company applied for an amendment from the Ohio Power Siting Board, which is not uncommon for a project of this size. The village raised some concerns. Now it’s simply a matter of the company addressing those concerns, which I am completely confident it will do sufficiently.”

ANOTHER ISSUE

The village also has objected to a request by the energy center to amend the certificate to add two temporary laydown yards, which are areas on a construction site used to store vehicles, tools and equipment when they are not in use.

The village objects, according to a July 7 document signed by Ries and Kellie Bordner, the village’s planning and zoning administrator / economic development director, “on the grounds that the parcels will allow continued construction” of the facility on residentially-zoned land.

They also claim the parcels are owned by third parties not subject to the siting board certificate and the owners did not come to the village for site plan review or needed permits.

Five days later, power siting board staff recommended the change for approval, plus five other design adjustments, but not without conditions.

The recommendation called for the energy center to continue to abide by all conditions already spelled out in the certificate, plus not allowing construction for the enlarged laydown yard to begin until the siting board received and reviewed a new water protection permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Although no wetlands, streams, ponds or floodplains would be impacted by the additional work, according to the staff recommendation, the energy center self-reported violations of the certificate in March.

“The violations included the unauthorized additional tree clearing of over five acres of trees, including the clearing of a total of 0.8 acre of forested wetlands on the facility site and the electric interconnection site,” the recommendation states.

The additional tree clearing violated the siting board permit, as well as a permit granted by the corps of engineers for the site, but the federal agency and energy center are in talks “to come back into compliance and remedy the unauthorized work” at the site, the report states.

The report also details two violations issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regarding discharge permits for the site and the electric interconnection site. The stormwater issues have been resolved, and the Ohio EPA has oversight over the remaining issue. Siting board staff anticipates the energy center “will satisfy” the concerns from the Ohio EPA, the document states.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled Aug. 28 in Columbus.

PREVIOUS DISPUTE

The village last year objected to another energy center request to change the certificate, this one to give the developer more time to start construction.

Initially, Bordner and Mayor Arno Hill objected to the request of the siting board to extend the construction-start deadline one year, but Hill later walked back his objection, stating talks with energy center officials satisfied his concerns.

The siting board granted the time extension in August 2022.

rselak@tribtoday.com