ARCHBALD, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A legal challenge over who can decide the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus arose Tuesday night, as attorneys for the developer asked six of Archbald Borough Council\u2019s seven members to recuse themselves from the project before presenting rebuttal testimony on air quality.<\/p>\n
The hearing marked the eighth conditional use hearing for the controversial proposal, which would bring 14 data center buildings and 588 backup diesel generators to more than 574 acres.<\/p>\n
Before expert testimony began, attorney Lucas Liben, representing the developer, filed individual motions seeking the recusal of Councilwomen Madonna Munley, Erin Owen, Larry Marchetti, Larry West, Lisa Osborne and Council President Louis Rapoch. Council Vice President Joseph Altier was not included in the motions.<\/p>\n
The developer also made motion of agreements of sale involving properties connected to sound studies for the project, including 430 Wildcat Road, 420 Wildcat Road and 200 Woodland Edge Drive.<\/p>\n
Council members said they had not yet had time to review the motions before the hearing.<\/p>\n
Liben argued the issue centers on the appearance of impartiality, not simply actual bias.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir individual motions, addressed to each of the six council members whom we have moved for recusal, is that a reasonable observer would not believe that those council members lack bias or lack impartiality because of that appearance of a lack of bias or impartiality, in addition to the actual presence of bias or impartiality,\u201d Liben said.<\/p>\n
He continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt basically says that all applicants are entitled to due process. What due process requires is not just the absence of bias or impartiality, but the absence of an appearance of bias or impartiality.\u201d<\/p>\n
If all six council members were ultimately recused, it is currently unclear who would issue a local decision on the application.<\/p>\n
Under Pennsylvania law, if enough officials recuse themselves that a quorum no longer exists, a municipality may face procedural complications. <\/p>\n
Under Pennsylvania\u2019s Municipalities Planning Code, conditional use applications are subject to statutory decision deadlines. Attorneys have noted that if a municipality is unable to act within those deadlines, legal issues surrounding a potential deemed approval could arise, though no determination has been made in this case.<\/p>\n
The remainder of Tuesday\u2019s hearing focused on rebuttal testimony from Tom Muscenti, regional director with Trinity Consultants.<\/p>\n
Muscenti testified his analysis focused on whether the proposed project would comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection permitting requirements.<\/p>\n
He concluded the proposed facility would be required to meet applicable air quality standards, that those standards are designed to protect public health, and that the project would need to obtain an air quality permit from DEP before construction or operation.<\/p>\n
Muscenti also testified the proposed data center would qualify as a synthetic minor source under air permitting regulations and said Lackawanna County currently meets federal air quality standards.<\/p>\n
His testimony directly challenged a previous expert retained by residents represented by attorney Justin Richards. That expert previously testified the project has the potential to create significant negative health impacts for nearby residents depending on the equipment ultimately selected.<\/p>\n
Muscenti said he believes the modeling tools used in that earlier analysis were not appropriate for evaluating regulatory compliance and overstated potential impacts. He testified that the EPA\u2019s COBRA model has limitations and should not be used in the manner presented during previous testimony.<\/p>\n
Richards questioned whether the two experts were evaluating different issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat might explain some of the disconnect as these council are trying to compare your permitting and regulatory compliance report against the report that focused on health, safety and welfare. Would you agree?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s reasonable,\u201d Muscenti replied.<\/p>\n
Muscenti acknowledged his expertise is not in conducting health impact studies, but rather in environmental permitting and regulatory compliance.<\/p>\n
Council members also questioned the consultant about his compensation. Muscenti testified he was being paid $450 per hour for Tuesday\u2019s testimony and approximately $15,000 in total for his work on the project. He also said confidentiality agreements prevent him from identifying other data center clients he has worked with.<\/p>\n
During questioning, council members expressed concern that they are now left with conflicting expert opinions. Some members said they viewed Muscenti\u2019s testimony primarily as a rebuttal to the previous expert\u2019s report and questioned whether it provided enough new information to help them evaluate the application.<\/p>\n
Muscenti responded that his report was intended to explain how EPA and DEP air quality standards are applied and enforced, not to conduct an independent health impact study.<\/p>\n
The conditional use hearing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARCHBALD, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A legal challenge over who can decide the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-259812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}