Environmentalists Want Judge to Revisit Pennsylvania Suit

An environmental group wants a federal judge in Pittsburgh to reconsider her decision to dismiss a pollution suit involving a western Pennsylvania river.

Attorneys for PennEnvironment say U.S. Magistrate Amy Reynolds Hay overlooked evidence that the plant owned by Reliant Energy Inc. damaged the Conemaugh River.

The judge ruled last month that the Sierra Club and PennEnvironment couldn’t prove that excessive discharge levels — which the plant acknowledged — actually hurt the river.

The groups in 2007 over discharges from Reliant’s Conemaugh Generating Station in New Florence.

The environmentalists say the discharge violations could hurt efforts to clean up other pollution in the river. The judge agreed with Reliant that neither group was legally entitled to sue.