The boiler house at the old power plant in Springdale probably won’t be destroyed this year.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has given property owner Charah Solutions, and demolition contractors Grant Mackay Co. and Controlled Demolition, Inc., until May 7 to submit their arguments in an appeal of a county court decision that paused the planned implosion of the former Cheswick Generating Station’s boiler house.
The companies contested the temporary injunction in January. Once their appeals are submitted to the Superior Court in May, lawyers representing the residents will have 30 days to submit their appeal, said John Kane, an attorney representing the residents.
This sets a schedule for oral argument to happen sometime this fall, Kane said, and a decision to be made about six months after the oral argument.
Sixteen Springdale residents in September requested an injunction to stop the implosion of the boiler house, which was later granted by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John T. McVay Jr. after a lengthy trial. McVay established procedures for the attorneys to follow before he would consider lifting the injunction and allowing the implosion to proceed.
“The defendants told the judge that they were in an incredible rush to demolish the boiler house due to its precarious state,” Kane said. “Judge McVay’s opinion notes how quickly he had to rule because of their claims that they needed this resolved swiftly. Defendants told Judge McVay that the rapidity was a safety issue, and then they filed an appeal that won’t be resolved until 2025 at the earliest.”
State law mandated the companies to file a statement of errors of McVay’s ruling as part of the appeal process. McVay filed a supplemental opinion responding to their claims and standing by his decision on Wednesday.
“While I no longer have jurisdiction pending this appeal, I remain available to try and settle the case if the parties agree and both parties should contact me if they wish to do so,” McVay said.
An attorney representing Charah said the company would let McVay’s supplemental opinion speak for itself.
Kane said McVay’s opinion “is very long and thorough, refuting each of the Defendants’ arguments one after another.”
McVay indicated that the residents met their burden of proof for a preliminary injunction to be granted.
“The Springdale residents brought this motion for injunctive relief because their community was devastated by the June 2, 2023 smokestack implosions, and they did not want to be similarly harmed by the implosion of the boiler house,” Kane said. “Judge McVay indicated in his opinion that he granted Plaintiffs relief because we established ‘the likely irreparable harm’ to the plaintiffs, but also to ‘the public health,’” Kane said.
McVay wrote that his order did not overstep authority, and that he imposed no conditions on anyone. He only ordered a temporary pause to the implosion “until the public was informed and the plaintiffs exhausted their administrative remedies,” he wrote.
“I have to admit, I instructed that the big solution of temporarily stopping the collapse without permanently stopping it and filled the gap,” McVay wrote. “The parties had already agreed on some safety measures, so I basically ordered them to have further discussions, get the approval of the DEP and (Allegheny County Health Department) on issues they disagree on, inform the public, and return to court after completing these next steps.”
