Testimony to resume in injunction case over boiler house implosion in Springdale

The court case to block the implosion of the boiler house at the former Cheswick Generating Station in Springdale is expected to resume Monday.

Last month, 16 Springdale residents filed an injunction against the companies that were scheduled to perform the implosion at the site.

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

The plaintiffs allege that the June 2 implosion of two smokestacks in Springdale created health issues and caused property damage. Allowing the boiler house implosion would impact the community negatively, they claim.

Already, representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection have testified on their involvement in the demolition permitting process, the impact of the smokestacks’ implosion on plaintiffs’ homes and properties and information from the Allegheny County Health Department.

Earlier this week, separate charges of property maintenance were withdrawn against Brittni Bair, a former borough council member and also a plaintiff in the injunction lawsuit.

Bair’s Pittsburgh Street home was cited for overgrown weeds and property maintenance, and a hearing was scheduled Wednesday in Judge David Sosovicka’s magisterial district court. Before the case was heard, the charges were withdrawn. Police declined to comment.

Bair’s attorney, John Kane, said Bair did not cut her grass because doing so would kick up toxins left from the dust that landed on her property from the smokestacks’ implosion.

DEP spokeswoman Lauren Camarda said in an email the department couldn’t comment on Bair’s case because it does not comment on legal matters and did not sample her property.

The DEP also declined to comment on health impacts or risks associated with activities such as mowing in the possible presence of contaminants. Those with specific concerns should contact their health provider or the state’s health department, Camarda said.

But, in regard to the June 2 implosion, Camarda said the DEP took dust samples from seven properties five days after the implosion and tested them for 24 different metals.

Initial sampling showed that, when compared to statewide health standards, there were somewhat elevated levels of the chemical vanadium in one sample, vanadium and arsenic in five samples, and lead and vanadium in one sample, Camarda said. Those standards are based on potential long-term exposure through inhaling or ingesting specific contaminants at the soil’s surface.

However, the DEP is in the process of revising the statewide health standards for vanadium and expects the revised rules to be published later this year.

“Under the new standard, none of the samples collected would have exceeded Pennsylvania’s statewide health standards,” Camarda said.

“Somewhat elevated arsenic levels, whether the result of natural soil conditions or other factors, are not uncommon in Southwest Pennsylvania.”

Only one sample showed elevated lead, which the DEP suspected was the result of sample contamination, Camarda said. The department resampled Aug. 15. There was no dust when DEP returned to resample, so investigators collected soil from the property where dust sampling showed elevated lead. Those results were below state health standards for direct contact with lead in soil.