Air quality and public health were in focus today in Newark's Ironbound, where elected officials joined local residents for a rally against a plan by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission to build a natural gas power plant at its sewage treatment facility.

Now, the plan is years in the making and is slowly moving forward despite fierce pushback from neighbors.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

This is environmental injustice, right?

We want environmental justice.

We want our community to be a space that our children can thrive in.

Community advocates, state and local leaders gathered in Newark today in front of the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission, pleading for a stop to the proposed fossil fuel plant planned as a backup generator for the wastewater treatment facility company.

Saying Newark is already overburdened with pollution Is three existing fossil fuel plants on New Jersey's largest Cranbury garbage incinerator and numerous, numerous, pollution facilities.

This project only made things worse.

The power plant was first proposed when the sewage treatment plant went down during Superstorm Sandy due to power outages and flooding spread sewage into Newark streets.

But since then, advocates like Assemblywoman Eliana Pinto, a marine who lives half a mile away, argue that changes have been made to shore up the infrastructure without adding another fossil fuel plant in Ida.

I got flooded where I live in my home.

They didn't.

That's because PSEG and everybody else did.

The work that they needed to do.

After Sandy, we have proven that there's resiliency and reliability.

We have endured enough.

The rancid smells, the soot, the toxic emissions, the never ending truck traffic.

This is what environmental racism looks like.

If we could bottle what we smell.

I wish that everyone could have an opportunity to smell what we do.

The smell here is putrid and it lingers on your skin, your hair, your clothes for hours after leaving and adding any further pollution to the area would go directly against the state's Environmental Justice Act, says Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz.

Any future project would be automatic, not considered because we are in a space designated that it should have been protected.

And so the legislature sent a clear message.

The intent was there.

The regs rolled out later.

The application for PVC was wrapped up in that process.

In other words, the application slipped through the cracks of the Environmental Justice Act as the regulations were still being rolled out.

But even as a community cries out against the project, departments at the state and federal level continue granting approval.

Last month, the DEP, the state Department of Environmental Protection, approved the start of construction and approved its ER operating permit, saying the plant will be fueled by natural gas and can only operate the station in the event of a storm that disrupts power service.

The DEP is requiring PVC to install pollution controls on its equipment and upgrades to older boilers and generators.

Plus it must add solar and battery storage on site conditions.

The DEP put in place to meet the state's environmental justice goals.

The EPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is currently reviewing the state's permit.

Now, community members are hoping the PVC board members can be the ones to stop it when they vote soon to approve the project or not.

I think they need to step up and support our city and make sure that, they are advocating for our residents to those in power who still have a choice to make, especially the PSC board, who soon decide your fate.

Know this the people of Newark will not forget where you stood.

One other person could have significant sway in the decision as well.

The governor has a strong position on this, and I implore him to think about the families here in our ward.

We reached out to the governor, but his office declined to comment.

PBS held a board meeting today, and many of the folks who were here joined on urging them to vote no on the project.

But there was no vote today, perhaps signaling that this board is not ready to move forward just yet.

In Newark, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.