The acting chairman of a state council charged with hearing a case on Public Service of New Hampshire's Bow power plant is a former employee of the company. The state chapter of the Sierra Club, which is appealing a state permit issued for the plant, wants him disqualified from the case.

PSNH is building a $457 million scrubber to capture emissions of the neurotoxin mercury and sulfur dioxide, a contributor to acid rain and smog. The Sierra Club says the state Department of Environmental Services shouldn't have issued a permit for the project in March without a strict review of the impact on air emissions.

Raymond Donald, a building inspector for East Kingston representing municipal interests, is the acting chairman of the Air Resources Council, which is reviewing the appeal. He worked for the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant from 1986 to 1999. For six of those years, PSNH was part owner in the plant.

Donald doesn't typically serve as chairman, but six of the 11 members of that council have already recused themselves from the hearing because of conflicts of interest. Four cited ties to PSNH, one is a member of the Sierra Club, and another is an employee of the Appalachian Mountain Club, which has taken a public stance against the scrubber. A seventh council member considered recusing himself because the real estate company he works for had been working with PSNH, but he decided against it.

The Sierra Club began asking board members whether they had conflicts of interest in March, when the group filed its appeal. After six members recused themselves, the remaining five decided the motion was moot. Cathy Corkery, director of Sierra Club's New Hampshire chapter, said Donald should have revealed his work history then.

"Ray Donald had lots of opportunities to disclose this information and he didn't," she said. "I think it makes a mockery of . . . the council and puts into question the veracity of the proceedings."

The Air Resources Council is one of several fronts on which environmental groups and competitors of PSNH have challenged the scrubber project, which has jumped in cost from $250 million since the Legislature mandated its installation in 2006.

Construction included replacing a turbine last year. The Sierra Club has argued that the project should have qualified for the New Source Review under the Clean Air Act, a permitting process used for modifications that result in considerable changes to emissions. PSNH has argued that emissions won't change significantly.

The Sierra Club has tried before to have Donald dismissed, arguing that he demonstrated a "manifest bias" against the group. The council denied that motion Oct. 19. The same day, the Sierra Club renewed its motion for disqualification, saying a disclosure form submitted by Donald to the state in 2006 showed that he had worked for Seabrook Station for 13 years.

PSNH relinquished its share of the nuclear power plant in 1992 to a separate subsidiary of parent company Northeast Utilities. Northeast Utilities sold its share to Florida Power and Light in 2002.

PSNH wrote in an Oct. 21 filing that it "cannot see any reason why (Donald's) connection to Seabrook Station disclosed in 2006 should have any bearing whatsoever on his ability to serve impartially on this matter."

But the company conducted an internal review of the situation to ensure that the record was "accurate and complete." In an Oct. 29 filing, it said Donald was one of about 1,000 employees who worked for Seabrook Station during those 13 years. According to the filings and spokesman Martin Murray, Donald receives a pension issued from a fund that PSNH paid into when it was a part owner but that it no longer contributes to.

Corkery said Donald would not be receiving that pension unless he had worked for PSNH.

The company said in its filings that none of the information it found "provides a legally sufficient ground for disqualification."

Donald declined to comment on the issue yesterday.

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