Eynon Jermyn Road power plant proposal scrutinized in Archbald

ARCHBALD — A consultant tried appealing to hundreds of anti-data center residents Monday night by stressing the need for a 400-megawatt power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road, but the crowd was unconvinced as the project faced heavy scrutiny.

Representatives for Essential Energy LLC — a firm tied to local data center developer Jim Marzolino — appeared before Archbald Borough Council seeking approval to develop a natural gas power plant across a 15-acre parcel on Eynon Jermyn Road. The site is adjacent to Staback Park on land that was formerly part of the Highway Auto Parts junkyard. Across the street, Marzolino plans to build a nearly 620,000-square-foot data center known as Project Boson on the main Highway Auto site.

Three limited liability companies affiliated with Kriger Construction Inc. — whose president is Marzolino — filed zoning applications in Dickson City last month to build at least three power plants across Bell Mountain above Business Route 6. Marzolino is also embroiled in appeals to Dickson City’s zoning over proposals to build data centers on Bell Mountain.

Monday represented the first hearing for a recently restructured borough council following the resignations of three members April 15. All six members of council, which is working to fill its vacant seventh seat, were in attendance, including newly appointed members Madonna Munley, Lisa Osborne and Larry West. Council will hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Borough Building, 400 Church St., to appoint its seventh member, according to a public notice published Tuesday in The Times-Tribune.

About 300 residents filled the Valley View High School auditorium for Monday’s hearing. Many who oppose data centers wore bright yellow T-shirts and carried matching yellow signs. To raise money for their cause, members of Stop Archbald Data Centers and their children sold lemonade in front of the high school before the hearing.

Attorney Mike Mey of Dunmore-based Mey & Sulla represented Essential Energy, guiding testimony from subject matter witness Jennifer Leonard, a senior program manager at KCI Technologies in Mechanicsburg, as well as project consultant Randall Holmes, who cited 35-plus years of experience in the power generation industry along with serving as CEO of several companies that collectively owned and operated more than 50 power generation facilities.

The power plant representatives spent much of the 3½-hour hearing embroiled in cross examination, facing scrutiny from council members, Stop Archbald Data Centers co-founder Tamara Misewicz-Healey and attorney Justin Richards, who represents residents fighting Archbald data centers. Questions from Richards and Misewicz-Healey frequently referenced a lack of information and studies required in the conditional use process.

Power plant representatives characterized the project as an improvement over the former scrapyard.

‘Critical supply need’

Essential Energy initially submitted a three-page zoning permit application, which Marzolino signed, and an accompanying site plan to Archbald on March 12„ followed by a three-page conditional use hearing application March 26 signed by Kriger Construction Vice President David Stiles. The power plant filed an updated site plan Thursday that halved the number of proposed turbines from four to two.

The site would consist of two turbines, each contained in 40,000-plus-square-foot facilities, a nearly 38,000-square-foot control building, a 29,000-square-foot underground containment facility for contaminated water, exhaust stacks, stormwater management facilities and related infrastructure. The buildings would be up to 55 feet tall, though the exhaust stacks could be higher. Initial plans described four 66,000-square-foot turbine pads, but when asked during the hearing about the change from four turbines to two, Leonard said, “It appears I was able to more efficiently design the site.”

Essential Energy will operate 24 hours a day and employ an estimated five workers per shift.

PDC Realty LLC, 805 Enterprise St., Dickson City, acquired Highway Auto’s salvage yard last year for $1,575,000, totaling about 83.5 acres across 17 parcels, according to a property transaction recorded Aug. 8. Marzolino signed an accompanying deed as manager of PDC. PDC initially used the address 99 Power Blvd., Archbald, which is the same address as Kriger Construction and its affiliated NEPA Concrete & Asphalt plant.

During their presentations Monday, Leonard provided an overview of the site plan, while Holmes focused on the need for a power plant amid projected electricity deficits spanning the 13-state regional transmission organization encompassing Pennsylvania known as PJM.

PJM coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity throughout the eastern United States, including all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Holmes pointed to significant projected electricity shortfalls across PJM, with the shortfall projected to grow to 50,000 to 60,000 megawatts by the end of the decade, he said.

“It is clear that massive amounts of power plant capacity will be needed to ensure that the PJM system can meet future electricity demands,” Holmes said. “Essential Energy’s proposed plant in Archbald will help … address this critical supply need.”

The power plant falls into Archbald’s general industrial I-2 zoning district, which permits power generation facilities as conditional uses, requiring approval from council for the project to move forward while adhering to conditions established by the borough.

In November, council adopted a controversial zoning amendment regulating data centers that applied a data center overlay district to a large swath of land along Eynon Jermyn Road, among other locations, including Essential Energy’s land. Overlay districts allow a new use on top of an existing zoning district, and in Archbald’s case, the overlay district prohibits on-site power generation for data centers, meaning a data center cannot operate its own on-site power plant.

Despite Project Boson and Essential Energy being built on the same property across the street from each other, both projects using KCI Technologies to create their plans, and both projects sharing the same ownership, the updated site plan contends the overlay’s ban on power plants does not apply because there are no data center uses proposed on the power plant site.

Holmes reiterated that position Monday after Councilwoman Lisa Osborne asked whether the power plant was being developed to support Project Boson.

“It is not designed to serve the data center across the street,” Holmes said.

Prior to using the name “Project Boson,” the data center initially applied with Archbald as “Archbald Data & Energy Center.”

‘All of this is lacking’

Council President Louis Rapoch and Vice President Joseph Altier III raised the first of what would become a deluge of questions directed at Essential Energy officials throughout the hourslong hearing, inquiring how the power plant would benefit residents, including if it’d lower their electricity bills.

“I couldn’t speak directly to the economic benefit,” Leonard responded, prompting an outburst from the crowd. “I can speak at a high level related to the tax income as well as the increased power to the grid.”

She estimated construction would cost between $750 million and $1.2 billion.

“We’re not for sale!” a woman shouted from the audience.

Councilwoman Madonna Munley read from Archbald’s zoning ordinance, citing language prohibiting developments from threatening “significant risk to public health and safety such as, but not limited to, explosion, fire or biological hazards.”

Describing emissions from power plants, including fine particulate matter, carbon dioxide and mercury, Munley asked how Essential Energy would address emissions — a concern raised multiple times Monday night.

“All emissions will meet or exceed the air permit requirements,” Leonard replied.

Neither Leonard nor Holmes provided projected emissions for the 400-megawatt power plant; Holmes later explained they can estimate emissions, but until the equipment and design are settled, they cannot provide specifics.

Leonard said the emissions outputs would be calculated during the engineering portion of the project and are not part of the conditional use process.

Misewicz-Healey questioned how she can assess the power plant’s impact on public health and safety without that information.

“Those studies are fulfilled as part of the overarching process of engineering the site,” Leonard responded. “We have completed all of the initial site visits and engineering analysis, which we provided here, and as articulated in our notes, we are going to meet or exceed all of the permitting requirements as well as fire safety requirements.”

Misewicz-Healey later asked whether they had met with Archbald’s police or fire personnel.

They had not, Leonard said.

Misewicz-Healey urged council to dismiss the application, citing a lack of information on impacts on public safety, noise, odors, dust, smoke, control of light and glare, vibration, off-street parking and loading, emergency plans, landscaping, setbacks from pipelines, and a traffic study, among other contentions. She also pointed to a lack of an environmental impact study, which Leonard said was underway.

“How can I develop my questions, how can I ask anything when all of this is lacking?” Misewicz-Healey said.

As an attorney representing residents challenging Archbald’s data center zoning and opposing data centers, Richards referenced Archbald’s zoning ordinance and pressed Leonard about what evidence the power plant submitted to show it would not “substantially negatively change the character of any surrounding residential neighborhood.”

Leonard responded, “Based on our site visit and the existing conditions as a (former) salvage yard that we’re cleaning up.”

Richards retorted that the borough requires plans, studies and other data for council to make its decision.

Both Misewicz-Healey and Richards pressed Leonard, Holmes and Mey about how they selected the location with its close proximity to schools, homes and parks while there is other industrially zoned land east of the Casey Highway and away from residences. Leonard pointed to its proximity to high-tension power lines and natural gas, though it would need a UGI-designed pipeline to convey gas to the site.

As he cross-examined Holmes, Richards cited power plant consultant’s contention that Essential Energy is needed on Eynon Jermyn Road to offset the looming electricity deficit driven in part by data centers.

“So the sum of your testimony, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that for the greater good of ambiguous or undefined people and the power grid in these 13 states, you’re asking this borough council to sacrifice the well-being of the people in this town, on this parcel, where there are other … I-2 parcels within the confines of this borough, to which the very same zoning ordinance applies?” Richards said. “Can you please explain to the council why not the I-2 parcel on the east side of the Casey Highway?”

“It’s hard to permit land that you don’t own,” Holmes answered.

Just before 9 p.m., council opted to continue the hearing until May 21 at 5 p.m. in the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive, Archbald. Essential Energy will present testimony from at least one more witness, and the public will have the opportunity to comment on the proposal prior to council taking any action.