WASHINGTON — A northern Virginia-based company said Tuesday that a power-generating plant it plans to build in Bucksport will burn coal “in an environmentally sound manner.”

The AES Corp., a 9-year-old company based in Arlington, Va., has five electricity and steam-producing plants throughout the country. It’s building a sixth plant in Hawaii and plans to have a seventh one running in Bucksport by the beginning of 1994.

“We’re looking in Maine, because it’s in New England, and there is a desperate need for energy up there now,” said Ann Murtlow, project manager for the Bucksport coal-burning plant.

She said the 180-megawatt plant will employ 770 people during the construction stage and 55 to 60 people to run the plant. AES plans to sell steam to the Champion International Paper mill in Bucksport and electricity to Central Maine Power Co. and other New England utilities.

She also said the new plant will be clean. It will use a so-called circulating fluidized bed boiler technology.

“It’s used to burn coal in an environmentally sound manner,” she said, adding that calcium in limestone will be used “to scrub” emissions when the coal is burned.

However, a Bucksport-based citizens group called State Taxpayers Opposed to Pollution (STOP) formed in February to protest the plant and says the plant will pose a threat to Maine’s environment.

Kathleen Jenkins, one of STOP’s six board members, said the plant would burn 1,500 tons of coal each day; use 125,000 gallons of water from the Penobscot River each minute; and could emit as much as 150 tons of ozone-producing nitrogen oxides a year, 2,400 tons of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide and 960 tons of particulate matter.

Also, “within a five-mile radius, there are three bald eagle nesting sites, several fresh-water wetlands, the Penobscot salmon run, deer wintering areas, two state-wildlife management areas, smelt brooks and osprey nests,” she said.

AES’ Murtlow questioned STOP’s track record, saying, “It’s not an established environmental group that is known in the state for environmental work.”

She added that the company has met with two of Maine’s longstanding conservation organizations — the Natural Resources Council and the Maine Audubon Society.

Jenkins said the February founding of STOP to fight AES’ coal-burning plant was “the beginning, but it won’t be the end of the organization.”

The Natural Resources Council is reviewing the plant. “Even with the best available technology, it may raise a number of environmental issues, including its effect on Acadia National Park, its contribution to serious ozone violations in the area, and its contributions to a large amount of greenhouse gases. We’re still evaluating it at this point,” said the council’s Ron Kriesman.

Both sides of the issue will have a chance to make their cases Thursday at a meeting of the Bucksport Planning Board.

“There will be a big turnout for Thursday night’s meeting,” Jenkins said, adding that representatives from 13 towns including Bangor, Ellsworth, Castine, Frankfort, Blue Hill, Prospect, Winterport, Stockton Springs, Orrington, Belfast and Hampden are planning to attend.