A 445-foot steam tower built at Public Service of New Hampshire’s Bow transfer station last month has numerous residents in nearby Pembroke piping mad.

Peter Bonanno of Mason Drive, Pembroke, has gathered 160 signatures from residents of Pembroke, Hopkinton, Contoocook and Hooksett who are opposed to the steam stack.

Of those 160 signatures, 63 were signed by people who say they can directly see the steam stack from their homes. The residents most affected are from Pembroke.

Nervous about home property values, Bonanno said he got steamed after watching the tower go up in only three weeks’ time while he and other neighbors had no idea it was going to happen.

“This just doesn’t seem right,” Bonnano said Friday, Sept. 11. “No one has talked about it and no one even received notice about it.”

On Sept. 9, Bonanno sent the petition and a letter to the state Site Evaluation Committee requesting a hearing on the steam stack, also called a “scrubber.” According to the letter, the committee deemed the tower “not a sizeable addition” to the current power plant site.

“It defies common sense that anyone could look at the new (steam) stack – at 445 feet in height … and not consider it a sizeable addition,” the letter said.

PSNH spokesman Martin Murray says the company “went above and beyond” to notify abutters and held two public input sessions at Pembroke’s Board of Selectmen meetings on Aug. 18, 2008, and June 15, 2009.

“We went above and beyond what we had to do in order to make sure the town was aware of what was going on,” Murray said. “More importantly, to provide the public with opportunity to ask questions.”

However, Murray admitted PSNH did not send letters to the nearby residents about the proposed scrubber.

Murray says the scrubber is a necessary part of PSNH’s $475 million plan to upgrade the facility to meet state environmental laws.

Currently, the Bow site, called the Merrimack Station, generates electricity by burning coal.

The purpose of the new scrubber is to drastically reduce the amount of pollution caused by the burning coal.

Once the facilities are renovated and the scrubber is functional, which is expected to be in July 2012, mercury emissions will be reduced by more than 80 percent from its current levels and sulfur dioxide will be reduced by more than 90 percent, Murray said.

“The state law passed in 2006 requires mercury emissions to be reduced by at least 80 percent,” Murray said.

“I’m not against my air being cleaner. But I feel that due diligence had not been done,” Bonnano said.