Lackawanna County Commissioners hired a Harvard-based firm for $165,000 to study the air quality and health impacts of the more than a dozen data centers and power plants proposed in the county.
"The people who live in Lackawanna County don't breathe air one project at a time. They breathe the cumulative air of Lackawanna County, and that's why what we are voting on today really matters,” said Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan.
The vote came over a month after Gaughan asked his fellow commissioners, Thom Welby and Chris Chermak, to hire EmPower Analytics Group.
In August, despite residents from around the county pleading with commissioners to hire the group, the elected officials quarreled over the cost of the study and whether or not to send out a request for proposals to conduct the assessment.
Ultimately, they sought proposals for a Regional Cumulative Air Quality and Public Health Impact Assessment. The county received three back from EmPower, the Pennsylvania Economy League and Spheros Environmental from Denver.
Gaughan thanked Welby and Chermak for agreeing to move forward with the study.
"I also want to thank the people of this county, the residents who have spent night after night sitting in auditoriums and council chambers, people who have read through zoning applications, studied reports, hired attorneys and experts, organized their neighbors, and asked really tough questions. This study today and this vote today belongs to them,” he said.
Chermak said the county has one chance to do a study right.
"That's why it was so important for us to put this out to bid to make sure that we were getting the best bang for our buck,” he said.
Welby said the commissioners agree that the study is critical and needed.
"We're excited to get this done. We're excited that we think that we're going to get it done right. And in 90 days we will have this, and we look forward to sharing that information with you at that time,” he said.
The study's scope
EmPower’s final report will be ready in 90 days, according to its proposal.
It will answer these questions:
- What is being built, and what is already here?
- How much pollution would the facilities add?
- Where does the pollution go?
- What does it do to health, and what does that cost?
- Who is most affected?
The group is led by Michael Cork, Ph.D., who conducted a health impact study for the Stop Archbald Data Centers group. He assessed how the 588 diesel-powered backup generators proposed for the Wildcat Ridge Data Center would impact public health.
The proposal says the group will build on that study, but is substantially broader.
“It is countywide and cumulative, adds fine-scale local dispersion modeling, covers the criteria pollutants and air toxics … establishes a public-health baseline, evaluates indirect electricity-generation impacts, and provides mitigation and monitoring recommendations.”
Gaughan, who believes this is the first study of its kind in Pennsylvania and possibly the nation, said the group committed to do an independent analysis without a predetermined outcome.
"We need an independent assessment of what could potentially happen should all of these projects come to fruition,” he said.
In August, Welby raised concerns that a study for all of Lackawanna County could be seen as invalid by lawyers and developers building in a specific town.
EmPower's analysis will now look at specific communities.
"So they [residents] can go and have some ammunition to go to those hearings that they'll be having and give direct evidence of what that effect can be in that neighborhood in that particular area," Welby said. "So I'm hopeful that we're going to have more information that people can use to defend their community."
Public response
The small audience applauded after commissioners unanimously approved hiring EmPower. The people in the seats included many who were at the August meeting and asked commissioners to hire the group.
"Every hearing is just one particular hearing, one data center, one power plant, and it's always been the question: the cumulative effects,” Meg Nudelman said.
Karen Timmons, like Nudelman, is a staple at the many public meetings in Archbald. She often speaks out and asks about the health impacts of the proposed data centers and power plants.
She said the developers have not presented evidence that they studied the cumulative effect of all of the "toxic air and how it would be trapped in the valley.
"I just really wanted to say thank you, and I'm very hopeful for what this can do. I have really no idea how much this will help our County, but I believe that it's going to make a huge difference,” she told commissioners.
Power plants are another concern
More than a dozen data center campuses are proposed for just Lackawanna County — there are dozens across all of Northeast Pennsylvania.
There are also more than four power plants in the works for the county to fuel the power-intensive industry.
Gaughan brought up a report in The Times-Tribune newspaper that recently uncovered PPL Corporation and Blackstone Infrastructure Group’s land agreements to purchase almost 7,200 acres of land — or 11-square miles of Lackawanna County — in Archbald, Carbondale, Carbondale Township, Fell Township and Mayfield to build two massive natural gas-fueled power plants.
He sent both corporations a letter demanding answers to 19 questions he has about the project and to hold a public meeting in Lackawanna County.
"The public should not have to reconstruct the plan one deed, one memorandum, and one PJM filing at a time," he said.
Gaughan, who held up a map of the land set to be purchased, proposed power plants and some proposed data center campuses, said the power plants would generate 2,250 megawatts of electricity, which is more than the Hoover Dam.
"These are mountains, forests, watersheds and communities where people actually live," he said. "Now, PPL and Blackstone have said publicly that their plans remain preliminary. I find that to be one of the biggest jokes of all time.”
***
In other business:
Commissioners voted to make Sept. 25 Dolly Parton Appreciation Day in Lackawanna County.
Through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the United Way of Lackawanna, Wayne & Pike Counties, provides books every month to 2,800 children in the county, said Imagination Library Chairperson Nancy de los Rios.
"Just since Dolly's passing, 500 children have requested to be added to our rolls. That is a $45,000 commitment," she said.
Parton died on Aug. 25. The United Way is hosting a Give Like Dolly Day on Sept. 25.
"Where we ask the community, businesses, restaurants, organizations, to dress up like Dolly in rhinestones and pink cowboy hats, or do a collection, or run a nine-to-five movie in their cafeteria, just something to celebrate the philanthropy of this woman, the spirit of giving that she shared with the world, and promote the Imagination Library locally," de los Rios said.
She said the United Way is hoping to make Give Like Dolly Day an annual event to support the Imagination Library.
Earlier this year, cracks and loose stones were found above the main entrance of the Lackawanna County Children’s Library on Vine Street in Scranton.
Scaffolding is currently up to protect library users. Commissioners agreed to pay up to $296,000 to D&M Construction to replace missing stones, reset loose stones, and repair cracks in the facade.
