It looks as if it will be March at the earliest before the Ontario Ministry of the Environment decides whether to require a full assessment of a proposed Strathearne Avenue power plant fuelled by sewage sludge and wood waste.

The City of Hamilton and 11 other organizations and individuals objected last year to the plant being approved on the basis of an environmental screening report, which is all that's required for small electrical generating plants.

The ministry said in May it wanted California-based Liberty to do more studies on air pollution and potential odour before it ruled on the request to bump up the review to a full assessment.

Liberty chief executive officer Wilson Nolan said recently the company would deal with odour by storing wood and biomass fuel in a seven-storey building bigger than a football field.

In addition, it had signed a fuel-sourcing agreement to ensure its demand for biomass won't compete with the city's compost plant.

He said the ministry had asked for more work on an air quality assessment and on a human health assessment that's already at 500 pages.

Liberty expected to make its final submissions on those studies this week or next, with the ministry slated to decide next month whether or not to accept them.

If they are accepted, then the documents will be made available for a two-week comment period before the ministry acts on the bump-up request.

Liberty says its plant would turn fuel into a gas which would be burned in a boiler.

Steam from the boiler would drive an electrical generator. It has said emissions would exceed Ontario standards.