Two days after the owner of the former Springdale power plant challenged a court decision halting the implosion of its boiler house, attorneys representing the demolition contractors added their own appeal.

The attorneys for Grant Mackay Co. and Controlled Demolition Inc. filed a joint statement, citing what they consider errors by Allegheny County Judge John T. McVay Jr. when he ordered a halt to plans to use explosives to implode the boiler house at the former power plant.

McVay’s order also directed lawyers for the borough residents who sought to stop the implosion and the companies to come up with and present a safety plan for the boiler house implosion. They then were to have it approved by state and county agencies and hold a public meeting.

“The Order of Court entered by the Trial Court is unenforceable in that it is not reasonably clear, unambiguous or sufficiently certain,” said the joint court filing, submitted Thursday.

Sixteen borough residents in September filed an injunction to prevent an implosion of the boiler house at the former Cheswick Generating Station, which was scheduled to be imploded using explosives Sept. 22. Twelve days of testimony in McVay’s courtroom ensued, and, in December, the judge granted the preliminary injunction and ruled that the implosion could proceed only after certain conditions were satisfied.

In the June 2 implosion of two smokestacks and the scheduled boiler house implosion, Grant Mackay Co. was the main demolition contractor and Controlled Demolition was the explosives subcontractor.

Attorneys representing the former power plant’s property owner, Charah Solutions, filed a statement of errors against the order on Tuesday.

In the latest filing, attorneys claim the residents failed to demonstrate, and the judge misapplied, six essential prongs required to grant an injunction.

McVay also erred in exceeding the relief requested by the residents, the filing said.

In the plaintiffs’ complaint for the injunction, they request an injunction preventing the implosion of the boiler house, the filing said. Rather, the court order allows the implosion to go forward under conditions requested by the plaintiffs and their expert witnesses.

“In exceeding the relief requested by the Plaintiffs, the Court effectively proposed relief that results in a failure to exhaust administrative remedies and a violation of agency autonomy,” the filing said.

The filing said the judge should have required the residents to “exhaust available administrative remedies,” such as presenting challenges to the state’s Environmental Hearing Board and before a hearing officer with the Allegheny County Health Department.

McVay also “lacked any apparently reasonable grounds” to conclude some of the decision’s findings of fact, the filing said.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs did not immediately return a request for comment.

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