COLUMBUS — After a year of preparation, public meetings, a month of testimony and more months of legal briefs, yesterday the Ohio Power Siting Board approved American Municipal Power-Ohio’s certificate for environmental compatibility and public need for its coal-fired power plant proposed for Letart Falls.

“It’s excellent news,” Perry Varnadoe, Meigs County economic development director said. “That really puts an air of certainty the project is going to be built.”

The application with the OPSB and the recently approved final air permit-to-install from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency were two major hurdles for AMP-Ohio to climb in building the plant.

Kent D. Carson, direction of communications for AMP-Ohio, said the decision was an “obvious milestone for the project” and the company was “very happy.”

Carson said the company still has several permits to obtain dealing with water quality, landfill, transmission lines, etc. However, despite the pending permits, AMP-Ohio is still on track to go online in 2013 and possibly begin actual construction in 2009.

Through the last several months, environmental groups opposed the plant because of its dependency on coal and how that might affect global warming. AMP-Ohio has stated its board of directors approved the use of Powerspan technology to deal with this issue. In its official statement the OPSB said: “The facility will burn approximately 12,000 tons of coal per day when operating at full capacity and utilize Powerspan emissions control technology to regulate sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate levels.”

The statement went on to say: “At a public hearing held in Pomeroy, Ohio, 22 members of the public testified. Testimony was equally divided between those in support of the facility for its impact on local economy and those opposed due to environmental concerns. OPSB staff recommended 34 specific conditions to minimize environmental, social and cultural impacts to the area, and AMP-Ohio has agreed to follow these conditions.”

The conditions were not elaborated on in the OPSB’s general statement.

“This will be the cleanest power plant ever built in Ohio, certainly one of the cleanest in the country,” Varnadoe said.

The OPSB states: “ The project is expected to create up to 1,600 construction jobs generating $566 million in annual wages and 150 permanent jobs generating $10 million in annual wages.”