Moundsville Wallboard Plant To Create 200 Jobs

BPB America Inc. on October 18 announced its decision to build a high-speed wallboard plant in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle using synthetic gypsum, a byproduct of pollution controls at an adjacent power plant. The new plant is expected to employ 100 workers and indirectly create another 100 jobs at the site next to American Electric Power Co.'s Mitchell Plant near Moundsville.

Gypsum is a byproduct of the flue gas desulfurization systems, known as scrubbers, used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants. Scrubbers are being installed on the Mitchell plant at a cost of about $800 million.

The expected cost of the project was not disclosed Tuesday, but in a March announcement of the cooperative agreement between AEP and BPB, the plant's cost was estimated at $100 million. The plant should be operational by 2007.The Moundsville plant will become the third BPB plant in North America using the synthetic gypsum technology.