Company pulls plug on gasification plant in NLV

By Conor Shine

Thursday, March 6, 2014 | 11 p.m.

The company behind a proposed gasification plant that would turn waste into electricity in North Las Vegas has withdrawn its application from the city due to concerns from residents who live near the proposed site.

A representative of Florida-based EnviroPower Renewable Inc. informed the city council at its Wednesday evening meeting the company was no longer pursuing the project, which would have been located near Losee and Lone Mountain roads.

The decision brought sudden closure to the ongoing debate over the plant, which pitted the city’s need for economic development against concerns of residents who worried the plant was too close to their neighborhoods and schools.

The gasification plant would have burned up to 1,000 tons of construction and other waste per day to generate up to 48 megawatts of power. EnviroPower Renewable officials said their gasification technology is more advanced than the trash-burning incinerators of previous decades, repeatedly assuring residents and city officials that the plant would produce minimal levels of pollutants well within air quality guidelines and that it wouldn't smell.

Still, residents pushed back against the project, voicing concern that any amount of pollution is too much with homes as close as half a mile from the plant’s proposed site.

Opposition also came from the Melbrum Trust, which owns large amounts of property near the site it worried would be devalued by the plant.

The proposed site was in an industrial zone and met all of the city’s basic requirements, but council members had the discretion to deny the permit if it didn’t fit in with the surrounding area or posed health concerns for residents in the vicinity.

A planned community meeting to discuss the gasification plant scheduled for March 12 will still be held at 6:30 p.m at Dickens Elementary, 5550 Milan Peak St. Instead of discussing the gasification plant, residents will have a chance to discuss other issues in their neighborhoods with city officials.