A state judge has affirmed a Connecticut Siting Council decision approving the construction of a natural gas-fired power plant in Oxford.
The neighboring town of Middlebury and a group of its residents have fought the CPV Towantic Energy Center since the council originally approved it in 1999. The plant was never built.
Neighbors have said the plant, which has been approved to produce 805 megawatts, would damage environment, hurt property values and area scenery.
In the intervening years, the Superior Court dismissed or rejected neighbors’ appeals and petitions three times.Â
Last week New Britain Superior Court Judge Carl J. Schuman dismissed the fourth such complaint.
CPV Towantic LLC applied to the council in late 2014 to expand upon the approved conditions won by its predecessor.
The changes included increasing the capacity by approximately 50 percent and developing six additional acres and changing the height of some of the structures. The council approved the new certificate of environmental compatibility and public need by a 5-2 vote in May 2015.
The Middlebury plaintiffs appealed the council’s decision soon after.
But Schuman ruled that their arguments didn’t hold water. Plaintiffs charged that the council’s decision wasn’t based on evidence and that it didn’t consider neighborhood concern or make proper service of its petitions.
Some of those arguments were not raised before the council, while others were not backed up by the record, wrote Schuman, who said the council’s 85-page decision was based on approximately 9,000 pages of evidence.
The council’s approval, which recognized the region’s increased demand for electricity, gives CPB Towantic until June 2019 to build the plant.
The plant received state air permits last month.
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