Jul. 2--The developer of a proposed tires-to-energy plant on Erie's east side has said its environmental report shows the complex will be safe.

Two local health organizations are calling the plant a danger to the region's environment and people. They said the developer's report is unreliable.

The Erie County Medical Society and the Erie County Board of Health voiced their opposition Wednesday before Erie City Council.

They questioned the validity of the "inhalation risk assessment" report of the developer, Erie Renewable Energy LLC. And the groups said their own reviews of ERE's study did nothing to alleviate their concerns that emissions from the plant, including lead and mercury, would put the local populace at risk for cancer, asthma and other health dangers.

"The Board of Health shares the opinions and findings of the Erie County Medical Society," the board's chairman, Paul Burroughs, a lawyer, told council.

"We recognize the operation of this plant will significantly raise the pollutants being emitted into our air, our ground and our water. According to the literature, the pollutants ... will have a measurable, definite negative impact on the health of the residents of the city of Erie, the county of Erie and the surrounding populations."

The secretary of the Erie County Medical Society, Thomas Falasca, D.O., questioned the independence and methodology of ERE's risk-assessment report and two other ERE-commissioned studies.

The reports "do not answer the Erie County Medical Society's concerns about the dangers to health and life posed by the projected tire-fueled power plant," Falasca told council.

The findings of the Medical Society and the Board of Health represent City Council's latest grounds in its opposition to the proposed $370 million plant, which ERE wants to build on the former International Paper Co. property on East Lake Road. Zoning and environmental issues have held up construction of the plant.

Council on April 15 passed a resolution opposing the plant, and at that meeting also asked three organizations -- the Medical Society, the Board of Health and the American Lung Association -- to review ERE's risk-assessment report.

Burroughs and Falasca detailed their respective groups' findings on Wednesday, and they told council they would submit their reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is reviewing the plant's air-quality plans.

The Lung Association's study is forthcoming. So is a risk assessment from the state Department of Health, officials said at Wednesday's meeting.

The DEP is aware of the views of the Erie County Medical Society and the Erie County Board of Health, said Freda Tarbell, regional spokeswoman for the DEP.

Tarbell said the agency has no deadline for its air-quality report, which will influence whether the DEP approves a permit for the plant.

ERE in March completed its risk-assessment report -- which it said it was not legally required to undertake -- and sent the 42-page study to the DEP.

The ERE-commissioned study found the plant "will operate at environmentally safe levels in every respect," ERE's principal owner and chief operating officer, Victor E. Gatto, has said.

ED PALATTELLA can be reached at 870-1813 or by e-mail.

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