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Evaluation of Cracker Project Nears an End

Bridge over the Ohio RIver near the proposed plant site
CC BY 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50015749
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Wikipedia
Bridge over the Ohio RIver near the proposed plant site

The decision on whether to build a multi-billion-dollar cracker plant in eastern Ohio is expected by the end of March and key environmental permits may already be in place.

Heidi Griesmer, Deputy Director for Communications
Credit Ohio EPA
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Ohio EPA
Heidi Griesmer, Deputy Director for Communications

The Ohio EPA issued wastewater discharge permits and a water quality certification for the Belmont County comple xlast week. Deputy Director Heidi Griesmer says that leaves just a few regulatory issues to resolve. 

“We are still evaluating the air-pollution permit. Once we’re ready to move forward on that we’ll release a draft and have another public hearing.

"Part of the property used to be a coal-burning power plant. That has been dismantled and they’re taking it through our voluntary cleanup program., so that is something else we’re looking at.”

A PTT Global chemical plant in Thailand
Credit PTT Global Chemcial
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PTT Global Chemcial
A PTT Global chemical plant in Thailand

That was FirstEnergy’s Burger generating plant.

The cracker which PTT Global of Thailand may build would process Utica shale ethane into ethylene for the plastics industry. The company has said it wants to make a decision on the plant this quarter.

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Tim Rudell
Tim Rudell has worked in broadcasting and news since his student days at Kent State in the late 1960s and early 1970s (when he earned extra money as a stringer for UPI). He began full time in radio news in 1972 in his home town of Canton, OH.