NEWARK, NJ — A New Jersey appellate court has upheld the state Department of Environmental Protection's decision to grant a revised air permit to the operators of a 655-megawatt natural gas plant in the Ironbound section of Newark.

The court's Dec. 1 decision regarding the Newark Energy Center was made despite longstanding objections from the Ironbound Community Corp. and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, who argued that the plant's operators should have been required to file public emergency-response and notification plans prior to obtaining a new permit in 2015, NJ Spotlight reported.

Under the previous permit, the Newark Energy Center (NEC) was allowed to use contaminated water (gray water) obtained from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in its cooling tower. The permit also allowed the NEC to use sulfuric acid to lower the gray water's pH level, but limited NEC's sulfuric acid emissions to 10.57 tons per year.