Scranton City Council will ask Pennsylvania American Water to discuss a data center\u2019s plan to tap Lake Scranton for cooling water.<\/p>\n
During council\u2019s meeting Tuesday, council members and residents raised various water issues, including how data centers proposed outside of the city nevertheless might impact the city, utility pave cuts, and PAW\u2019s proposed rate hike pending before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.<\/p>\n
Recent data center proposals, including one rejected Tuesday night in neighboring Ransom Twp. and another proposed in Archbald that aims to use water from Lake Scranton \u2014 which is the city\u2019s reservoir of drinking water \u2014 spurred some of the discussion during council\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n
The data center proposal closest to Scranton, in neighboring Ransom Twp., could have affected stormwater remediation work in the city\u2019s Keyser Valley section. Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and Lackawanna County Controller Gary DiBileo, who is president of the Keyser Valley Neighborhood Association, Scranton City Council President Tom Schuster and Councilman Mark McAndrew were among those on hand to oppose the project during a packed hearing in Ransom last Thursday.<\/p>\n
That overflow crowd prompted a followup hearing Tuesday, when Ransom Twp. supervisors rejected an amendment to the township zoning ordinance that would have defined and regulated data centers.<\/p>\n
While that hearing was taking place Tuesday, Scranton City Council was hearing from city residents about data centers and water-usage issues, including Project Gravity, a seven-building campus proposed in Archbald that would use 360,000 gallons of water per day from Lake Scranton for cooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that every elected official needs to start standing up and expressing their views (on data centers) \u2026 I\u2019m very concerned,\u201d Joan Hodowanitz told Scranton City Council. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to build one in Scranton. Scranton\u2019s going to feel the effect like every community in Lackawanna County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Mancini said, \u201cWater consumption is another hidden crisis. Data centers need massive cooling systems to prevent overheating,\u201d with many using millions of gallons of fresh water daily.<\/p>\n
Noting droughts are bound to occur, Bob Bolus said, \u201cWe\u2019re at the mercy of Mother Nature for our water supply and to be a bunch of dumb idiots to give it away to these data centers \u2026 we\u2019re better off having our brains taken out, put in a glass jar, because you won\u2019t have a brain to think anymore. That\u2019s where we\u2019re heading.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marie Schumacher asked if the city has a policy for taking water out of Lake Scranton. Schuster said no, as the body of water is owned by Pennsylvania American Water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that you would start getting your toes into Lake Scranton,\u201d Schumacher said.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Jessica Rothchild said, \u201cI am in agreement in standing against data centers in Lackawanna County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schuster said council would ask the water company to attend a council caucus soon to address water issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s time to get them in for a caucus and we could speak with them not only about our pave cut and restoration situation, but also about water usage from Lake Scranton,\u201d Schuster said. \u201cSo we\u2019re at a point where these data centers haven\u2019t been approved yet, but if they are approved, what is their plan for water usage in Scranton and our surrounding areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, PAW spokesperson Alana Roberts said, \u201cPennsylvania American Water values its ongoing working relationship with the City of Scranton and remains committed to open, constructive communication.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton City Council will ask Pennsylvania American Water to discuss a data center\u2019s plan to tap Lake Scranton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3069,201,44666,4102,178,679,180,179,32030,45927],"class_list":["post-93253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-data-center","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-lake-scranton","tag-pennsylvania-american-water","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-city-council","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-tom-schuster","tag-water-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93253","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=93253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}