Appeals could push demolition of Springdale boiler house into 2025

The boiler house at the former power plant in Springdale likely won’t be demolished this year.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Thursday gave property owner Charah Solutions, and demolition contractors Grant Mackay Co. and Controlled Demolition, Inc., a May 7 deadline to file their briefs in an appeal of a county court decision granting a pause of a planned implosion of the former Cheswick Generating Station’s boiler house.

The companies appealed the temporary injunction in January. Once their appeals are filed to the Superior Court in May, attorneys representing the residents will have 30 days to file their appeal, said John Kane, an attorney representing the residents.

That sets up a timeline for oral argument to take place sometime this fall, Kane said, and a decision could be rendered about six months after the oral argument.

Sixteen Springdale residents in September filed for an injunction to block the implosion of the boiler house, which was ultimately granted by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John T. McVay Jr. after a monthslong trial. McVay set procedures for the attorneys to follow before he were to consider dissolving the injunction and letting the implosion proceed.

“Consider that defendants told the judge that they were in such an incredible rush to demolish the boiler house because of the precarious position that they were in given the state of the boiler house,” 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 an issue of safety, and then they took an appeal that won’t be resolved until 2025 at the earliest.”

State law required the companies to file a statement of errors of McVay’s ruling as part of the appeal process. McVay on Wednesday filed a supplemental opinion responding to their claims and standing by his decision.

“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, shooting down 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 decimated 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.

“Admittedly, I ordered the significant remedy of temporarily halting the implosion while not permanently enjoining it and filled the void,” McVay wrote. “The parties themselves had already reached some agreements to safety, so I essentially ordered them to talk some more, seek the review of the DEP and (Allegheny County Health Department) on whatever they do not agree upon, inform the public and come back to court upon completion of these next steps.”