Moosic Borough Council will consider a comprehensive ordinance Monday to regulate and restrict the data center industry, including barring facilities from using their backup generators to support the electric grid.

With close to 100 data centers proposed throughout Lackawanna County across more than a dozen projects, communities have spent more than a year crafting and adopting zoning amendments that define and regulate data centers. As lengthy hearings and applications from developers reveal more insight into the industry, local zoning ordinances required to govern data centers have become increasingly nuanced. On Monday at 7 p.m., Moosic council will meet at the Borough Building, 715 Main St., to consider its own restrictions on the industry, according to a public notice published July 31 in The Times-Tribune.

The 18-page document would amend Moosic’s zoning ordinance to recognize “computer data centers and high-density computing facilities” as special exceptions in the borough’s manufacturing zones. As special exceptions, developers would be required to adhere to a slew of restrictions and present their projects to the Moosic Zoning Hearing Board for consideration, allowing impacted residents to participate in the hearing and cross-examine data center representatives.

Those zones encompass: Moosic’s northern tier near the Scranton border by Davis Street, the bottom of Rocky Glen Road, and the site of the former DuPont or Goex gunpowder plant on Moosic’s southern border near the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. The northernmost site is already slated for a warehouse.

Municipalities in Pennsylvania are required to allow for every lawful land use somewhere within their boundaries, and failing to do so exposes a community to legal challenges over exclusionary zoning.

In Moosic, the proposed legislation represents nearly a year of work, beginning with council researching the industry in September 2025, according to council President Marilyn French. The ordinance was reviewed at multiple public meetings, including a public hearing last month, as well as by both the Moosic Planning Commission and Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission, according to French.

Moosic has not received any applications for data centers, she said in a text Friday.

The borough’s proposed ordinance addresses the evolving concerns surrounding data centers by explicitly prohibiting them from using backup generators for peak shaving or to supply power to the grid. The ordinance restricts generators to power outages and routine maintenance and testing, capped at 100 hours annually. Testing and maintenance would be limited to weekdays from 8 a.m. through 5 p.m.

While early concerns focused more on data centers’ cooling equipment and the noise it produces, the use of large arrays of backup diesel generators has emerged as a central concern due to their noise and emissions, especially in Archbald Borough. Compounding those worries, the U.S. Department of Energy and PJM Interconnection — the country’s largest grid operator serving Pennsylvania, a dozen other states and Washington, D.C.,— are increasingly eyeing data centers’ backup generators as a means of supplementing the electric grid during the hottest summer weather to avoid power outages across the grid.

The Department of Energy authorized PJM to order data centers and other large-load users to rely on backup generators to maintain grid reliability three times this summer, spanning from 11:59 p.m. June 30 through July 7 with an extension, and then again from 11:59 p.m. July 14 through July 21. Diesel generators pollute significantly more than natural gas power plants on a per-kilowatt-hour basis, with the most stringent class of generators — Tier 4 — comparable at best to a coal-fired power plant.

Other regulations in Moosic’s ordinance include:

• A 45-foot maximum building height, inclusive of roof-mounted equipment; along with 500-foot setbacks from any residential district, planned development zone or sensitive receptor like residential uses, schools, long-term care facilities, hospitals, retirement and nursing homes, places of worship, recreational facilities and conservation lands.

• Mandatory sound and vibration studies, including pre-construction, interim and post-construction sound studies, with restrictions placed on both decibels measured in the standard dBA scale and low-frequency noise measured in dBCs. The borough can then require as-built sound studies. Maximum decibel levels are exempt during power outages when backup generators operate, though the sound study must still evaluate and report anticipated decibel levels when all emergency power generation equipment is running.

• Data centers cannot use private groundwater wells or directly draw from surface water as primary sources of cooling if public water is available. Facilities must be designed to use closed-loop cooling systems, unless an applicant presents an alternative that uses less water and energy than closed loop. The ordinance relies on 3½ pages dedicated to water and sewer use regulations. Other requirements include a detailed water utilization report; pre-construction, interim and post-construction water quality testing; a drought contingency plan; and wastewater disposal analysis.

• An energy management plan detailing, at minimum, annual electricity demand, supply sources, energy storage capacity, and efforts to maximize the use of renewable energy. On-site or behind-the-meter power generation using natural gas, renewable fuels or other clean sources “when used to improve reliability, efficiency, or sustainability” is permissible. Diesel generators must meet Tier 4 emission standards — the highest tier available.

• An emergency management plan addressing flood, fire, explosion, and catastrophic weather events. Residents living within half a mile must be provided an emergency preparedness plan, and any battery storage must comply with National Fire Protection Association standards.

• A thermal impact and heat dissipation study showing the amount of heat produced and released into the atmosphere during normal operations, along with strategies to minimize heat dissipation to achieve a neutral impact on surrounding properties. It requires preliminary, interim and as-built studies.

• An electronic waste plan outlining procedures for safe removal and recycling and/or disposal of server infrastructure, hazardous materials, batteries, electronic waste and related products.

• A decommissioning plan documenting what would trigger closure of a data center, procedures for safe shutdown, timelines, site restoration and repurposing. Decommissioning or repurposing must begin within one year of a data center shutting down.

• Requirements for landscape buffers, screening, fencing aesthetics and parking.

“The Borough of Moosic is committed to protecting the health, safety, and welfare of its residents through thoughtful and responsible land use regulation,” according to the ordinance.