WILLIAMSON — Although the public has been given additional time to comment on the coal-to-liquid plant proposed for Mingo County, that extra time may have little impact on the outcome of decisions made about the plant’s environmental impact.

New York-based TransGas Development LLC announced last year it planned to build the plant in Mingo County near Wharncliffe. The facility is expected to turn 3 million tons of coal a year into methanol that would then be converted into as many as 756,000 gallons of gasoline a day. The state Department of Environmental Protection announced a preliminary decision to grant the permit in October.

The West Virginia Division of Air Quality public comment period was originally slated to end on Nov. 30, but has been pushed to Dec. 18 for written comments.

Randall Harris is the project manager for the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority. He said the permitting process for the Mingo County Hybrid Energy Center is on track.

“The permit process is now delayed by 18 days but with the holidays it is effectively a month,” Harris said. “We are progressing through the permitting process and currently WV Department of Environmental Protection is accepting comments on the draft permit,” Harris said.

MCRA has worked with TransGas on the project for several years, and Harris said he felt every effort has been made to ensure it will have minimal environmental impact.

“The TransGas engineers have spent almost four years designing a project that has minimal environmental impact and maximum job potential for central Appalachia.” He told the Daily News. “The result was that WV DEP determined that the project qualified as a ‘minor source’. That means less studies have to de done because the potential impact is minimal.”

The comment period is an opportunity for people to let the Division of Environmental Protection know how they feel about the facility. Environmental groups, such as the San Francisco based Sierra Club, are using the period to state their opposition to the plant.

“The goal of the anti-coal groups is to delay till the developer abandons the project,” Harris said

He added that those who support the facility should make their views known as well.

“This is one of those few cases where the local community has some power,” Harris said.

Comments about the plant should be sent to Joe Kessler at WV Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Air Quality, 601 57th Street, SE, Charleston, WV 25304 or faxed to (304) 926-0478.