The Lackawanna County Commissioners took no action on a proposed $165,000 study of potential data center health impacts despite pleas from dozens of residents during a three-hour meeting Wednesday.
“We, the people, should not be standing here throwing research at you and hoping that it sticks," Olyphant resident Eva Rappenguneck said. "That’s your job. Your job is to do the research and make the best decisions for our communities, not us.”
Rappenguneck was among roughly 40 residents in attendance, some holding signs.
There are 15 campuses proposed for the county, most with multiple data centers, as well as three power plants in Dickson City and one in Archbald to power the industry.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan on Monday proposed hiring Dr. Michael Cork’s research group, Empower Analytics Group, at a cost of $165,000 to conduct an independent countywide scientific analysis of the cumulative air quality and public health impacts of the industry.
Cork recently conducted a health impact study for the Stop Archbald Data Centers group. He assessed how the 588 diesel-powered backup generators would impact public health.
During Wednesday’s commissioners meeting, the three elected officials — who all appeared to agree that a study would be beneficial — squabbled over the cost of the study, what group should conduct a study, and whether the state and local municipalities should be involved in funding the analysis.
They did not, however, accept Gaughan's motion to hold a vote on the question at the next meeting.
"We certainly are for doing this health assessment, and I want to assure everybody that you know I'm on board with doing it," Commissioner Chris Chermak said. "But we have to look at funding it. It's not in our budget. Everything that we do here goes back, and it all comes down to money. So we need to talk about that.”
Proper procedure & funding
Gaughan argued that the funding is in the budget. He asked the county’s CFO Dave Bulzoni if there is money available and Bulzoni found two funding sources.
"Just today at this meeting, we've spent well over $500,000 on equipment, on software, on this and that. You're trying to tell me that $165,000 that we have in our budget ... You're trying to tell me that that is too much money, or maybe we should find somebody else," Gaughan said. "I've been at all these meetings. I recognize a lot of faces in this room. We don't have any time. There is no time.”
Commissioner Thom Welby wants some of the county's 40 municipalities to help fund the study.
"They are, these boroughs are cash-strapped because they're getting bullied and buried by high-priced attorneys from all over the country," Gaughan said. "God forbid the county step in and try to help them.”
Gaughan also said county leadership and its legal team — as well as Welby and Chermak — gave him the go ahead to seek a proposal from Cork’s Empower Group.
Still, Welby wants the county to send out requests for proposals for the study.
"We can't just jump in, spend $160,000 at the first thing that walks in front of us without knowing that it's the best thing that we have available,” he said.
Chermak suggested they could use artificial intelligence to determine health outcomes.
No trust in state
Welby suggested that the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) take the lead on the study.
Many of the residents in the audience said during public comment that they do not believe the state is on their side when it comes to data centers.
Gaughan agreed.
"And why are we asking DCED to get involved, I don't know about anybody else, but the state right now is not really the one that I'd want to be driving the bus here on anything,” he said.
Study as evidence
Tammy Misewicz-Healey founded the Stop Archbald Data Centers group with her husband, Justin Healey. She said she feels like they’ve been at war for the past year.
There are at least six data center campus proposals in Archbald, and she said they will become legal battles.
"And what do you need in a legal battle? You need evidence. So the health impact assessment that we want from this county is because nobody has given us a health assessment yet, which absolutely should be a requirement of these developers,” Misewicz-Healey said.
She told the commissioners that there is nothing more important than understanding what the industry will do to the health of county residents.
Welby later argued that a countywide assessment could not be used in Archbald, for example.
"It is not specifically relative to your community,” he said.
Heather Luklanchuk grew up in Throop and had to get tested for lead as a youth because of her home’s close proximity to the now-capped Marjol Battery Site, a former federal Superfund site.
"I believe you can appreciate that the health of this county is most certainly worth that less than 1% of the budget, and time is one thing we do not have on our side," Luklanchuk said. "Everyone has been saying that, and I hope you take that away today."
A contentious end
During the commissioners' comments at the end of the meeting, Gaughan motioned for a vote to put the Cork proposal on the agenda at the next meeting.
Neither Welby nor Chermak would second the motion.
Welby again reiterated his belief that the study would not have legal standing in a borough because it would be a countywide analysis.
"Do you think the lawyers are going to let you admit that with information from a different municipality than the one that they're appealing it to?” he said.
Welby also said that "the most appropriate person or group" to undertake any study "is the one that we will pick to do it, not the first one that pops up and gives us a proposal.”
A frustrated Welby adjourned the meeting while the crowd continued to yell out.
But before that, Gaughan asked his fellow commissioners what is more important than the health of the people of Lackawanna County.
"What investment is more important than knowing whether the communities we represent will bear the cumulative burden of dozens of massive industrial facilities? We routinely, as you saw today at this meeting, spend public money studying roads, bridges, buildings, equipment, and financial systems. We spend money to understand the condition of things that we can replace," he said.
"Yet, when it comes to understanding the health of the people we can never replace, suddenly we're worried about the cost of things.”
Neither of the other two commissioners answered Gaughan's question.
