Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti urged the state Department of Environmental Protection to hold a hearing in Scranton on potential stormwater runoff from a PPL Electric Utilities project to upgrade a century-old transmission line in mountainous parts of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
PPL proposes to upgrade the 7.75-mile, 69-kilovolt overhead transmission line between the Stanton substation in Exeter Twp., Luzerne County, and the Summit substation on Scranton’s West Mountain, Lackawanna County. The “Stanton-Summit Rebuild Project” would improve the reliability of the transmission line dating to 1926 in Exeter Twp., Duryea, Taylor, Ransom Twp. and Scranton, and is not related to data centers, a PPL spokesperson said Friday.
PPL constructed the Summit substation in 2017 on eight of the 240 heavily wooded acres on the northwest side of Keyser Avenue that PPL had previously bought from the former Diamond Coal Co.
A public notice of the “Stanton-Summit Rebuild Project” was published Aug. 15 in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
Cognetti’s concern with the rebuild project is its potential impact on Scranton’s flood-prone Keyser Valley area, which has gotten swamped at times over the years from stormwater flooding. Severe flash flooding on Sept. 9, 2023, deluged Keyser and Lindy creeks, which both flow down West Mountain. Since then, the city has spent millions of dollars undertaking several stormwater control and flood mitigation projects in that area and beyond, some of which remain ongoing, and more are in the works.
In an announcement Friday, Cognetti expressed concern that PPL’s Stanton-Summit project could cause new stormwater runoff problems in Keyser Valley. Cognetti said she submitted a letter Tuesday to DEP’s Northeast Regional Office seeking a public hearing in Scranton on the project, for which PPL has sought a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for stormwater discharges.
The Stanton-Summit project would disturb 72.5 acres of land and potentially “send construction stormwater into waters that flow through and along the City, including Keyser Creek,” according to the mayor’s letter.
“We have invested significantly into stormwater conveyances and other infrastructure in Keyser Valley and other neighborhoods across Scranton to protect them from flooding and stormwater damage,” Cognetti said. “We will do everything we can to continue to protect our homeowners and small businesses from environmental impacts, including those that may be caused by the utility companies.”
“We are the community that lives with the results if the erosion, sediment, and post-construction controls fall short,” Cognetti continued. “Stormwater is the heart of our concern. For years, Scranton has struggled with serious stormwater problems: streets and basements that flood, drainage systems that cannot keep up, and runoff that damages public and private property. The City has spent millions of dollars of public money to fix these problems and to meet its own stormwater obligations. A project that tears up 72.5 acres and discharges construction stormwater into the same waters that move through the City puts that investment at risk.”
In a statement from PPL spokesperson Dana Burns to The Times-Tribune, the utility said: “The Stanton-Summit Line Rebuild Project is a reliability investment designed to replace transmission infrastructure that was originally installed in 1926 and has exceeded its expected service life. The project will rebuild approximately 7.7 miles of existing 69 kV transmission line between PPL Electric’s Stanton and Summit substations. Investing in the line now helps avoid more costly repairs and increased outage risks that can occur as infrastructure continues to age. Replacing equipment before failures occur is generally more efficient and cost-effective than responding to unplanned outages and emergency repairs. This project is a reliability-driven rebuild of existing infrastructure, not a project being undertaken to serve proposed data center development. Public comments are an important part of the permitting process. PPL Electric will continue to work with DEP throughout its review of the application and will provide any additional information requested by the agency as part of that process.”
Under the public notification process, the DEP may hold a hearing if one is requested. Efforts on Friday to reach the DEP were unsuccessful.