SOBE Concerned Citizens hosts environmental expert, legal reps at town hall

"If we allow this company to come in...then how many more communities will be faced with this fight down the road?", said Dr. Randi Pokladnik, an environmental expert with a masters and PhD. She spoke at a town hall organized by SOBE Concerned Citizens Thursday. The group has been fighting the proposed thermal energy facility in downtown Youngstown.

Dr. Pokladnik says their fight would set an important precedent, and that the process the plant would use - pyrolysis - is counterproductive and dangerous.

"This is not an answer to the plastic waste problem, this is just forcing more emissions on a community that already has to deal with emissions," Pokladnik said.

The citizen-led group has called on city leaders to extend a one-year moratorium on any facility of this kind.
Sixth Ward councilwoman Anita Davis says legislation to do that is already in the works, since the current one expires in December.

"...we will be voting on it at the next meeting," Davis told the group.

While the city is contesting the Ohio EPA's permit for the facility in court, the group's legal representatives from Case Western Reserve University law school - working pro bono - argue the city's zoning code wouldn't allow the plant to operate.

"We believe that there would be no permissible use of pyrolysis in the region because the area is not zoned for industrial expansion," said legal intern Ellie Buerk.

The law students say they'll make the zoning argument if and when they need to, but their short term focus remains on extending the moratorium.