Attorney: Charges withdrawn against Springdale woman for not cutting grass since June implosion of smokestacks

The attorney for a Springdale woman who lives across from the former Cheswick Generating Station says the woman didn’t cut her grass because, if she did, it would reexpose arsenic and other toxins from the June 2 implosion of the plant’s smokestacks.

Brittni Bair, 33, received two summary offenses in August for failing to cut the grass at her home on Pittsburgh Street. But when a hearing was scheduled before District Judge David J. Sosovicka, the charges were withdrawn, according to court records.

Reached Wednesday, Springdale police Chief Derek Dayoub declined to comment.

The borough’s code enforcement officer, Ed Crates, said he did not issue the citation or withdraw it or attend the hearing, and he had no comment.

Bair’s attorney, John Kane — who also is part of a law firm representing Bair and 15 other Springdale residents in their lawsuit to halt an implosion of the power plant’s boiler house — said Tuesday that Bair did not want to cut her grass because a toxicologist said doing so would reaerosolize toxins that fell on her property from the implosion of the two smokestacks.

“Her position is she didn’t deposit those toxins in her yard, and she shouldn’t be responsible for cleaning them up,” Kane said.

Bair told Tribune-Review news partner WTAE-TV she is happy the borough chose to withdraw the charge, but she still is concerned for her neighbors’ safety.

“It’s devastating. It’s been devastating for the whole community. I know there have been mixed responses, but some of us have damages inside and outside of our homes, and we have children,” Bair told WTAE.

The smokestacks at the former power plant property were imploded June 2. Officials have said the stacks fell where they were intended to land, but an air blast from the taller stack felled power poles and caused damage to nearby homes, including Bair’s.

Plant owner and environmental remediation firm Charah Solutions, explosive subcontractor Controlled Demolition Inc. and main demolition contractor Grant Mackay Co. handled the smokestack implosion. They also are the defendants in the injunction lawsuit, which will resume at 9 a.m. Monday in Judge John T. McVay Jr.’s courtroom in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Following the implosion, Charah advised residents impacted by the implosion to submit claims to the company for reimbursement.

Information revealed during testimony in the injunction hearing in September found that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection tested the dust that landed on nearby property owners’ yards. The tests found levels of arsenic and the chemical vanadium. How high the levels were is unclear. A request for comment from the DEP was not immediately answered.

The boiler house was scheduled to be imploded Sept. 22 but was postponed because of the injunction filed.