NILES — As construction continues at the Indeck Energy Services natural gas plant site in the Niles Industrial Park, a dozen or so people gathered Thursday for a public hearing on the company’s request for a modification of their air emissions permit from the state.

Indeck broke ground on the new $1 billion plant Sept. 4 with company and area dignitaries in attendance. The project is expected to employ 500 people during the construction phase and then 21 people once it is in operation in March 2022. The new 1,085 megawatt combined cycle plant is expected to generate enough energy to power 700,000 homes and businesses.

Thursday, officials with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy hosted an information session and public hearing on the proposed permit modification at Northside School on North Fifth Street. Indeck received an air permit in early 2017, but a new hearing was needed because the manufacturer of the turbines being installed changed some specifications.

EGLE Decision Maker Mary Ann Dolehanty said she and other staff will now review all the comments received and expect to make a decision in the next couple of weeks. If the new permit is approved, EGLE staff will do unannounced inspections every two years. Indeck’s operating permit will then be up for renewal every five years.

EGLE Senior Environmental Engineer Catherine Asselin said Thursday that Indeck can proceed with construction during the permit process under terms of the 2017 permit and could do so under that permit into the future even if the modification would be denied.

Asselin gave background information on the project including a timeline from 2001 when the first permit was approved to the present. She noted that EGLE does not regulate what she called “local” issues such as zoning, noise and traffic concerns.

She said that written concerns submitted before the hearing centered around toxic chemical emissions and possible health effects. She noted that the total amount of emissions will actually go down although levels of some volatile organic compounds will go up. She said that health standards are calculated at ground level and not at the top of the plant’s stacks.

Howard Township residents Gabe Casey and Larry Eckler questioned the project’s effects on them and their neighbors who will be closest to the plant, while former Niles Mayor Mike McCauslin spoke in favor the project. McCauslin was the mayor when Indeck first came to the area in 2001 to propose building a new power plant.

Casey said he and his family live less than two miles away from the Indeck site and suffer from a variety of health problems including asthma.

“Many of us feel like the city didn’t take our feelings into consideration,” he said. “Many of us are still opposed to it. When the winds blow from west to east, we are the first people who will inhale the toxic substances.”

He said some of the information provided by EGLE about the plant’s emissions are concerning such as 2,000 tons a year of carbon monoxide, 418 tons of nitrous oxide and 955 tons of volatile organic compounds.

“That’s a lot and studies have shown that they cause increases in respiratory illnesses,” he said. “We’re concerned about the adverse effects of the plant.”

Eckler said his biggest concern centers around the temperature inversions the area sees and having pollutants from the plant trapped in the atmosphere.

“I would like to see the company have to do monitoring,” he said. “We have unique weather patterns here. and I’m concerned about the health of the citizens.”

He noted that Indeck will have a large footprint in terms of its air emissions which could preclude other companies from coming into the area. He was also concerned about the spread of contamination in the ground as the plant site is a brownfield. EGLE officials said contaminated soil will be put in berms and capped on site.

McCauslin said he was in full support of the Indeck project and the permit modification.

“This modification will lower the amount of natural gas used and the amount of total emissions,” he said.