Residents voice concern about proposed Jessup power plant

Apr 7 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Luke Ranker The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.

 

A standing-room-only crowd packed the Jessup Borough Building on Monday for public comment on a proposed natural gas power plant, where more than a dozen residents spoke out.

Chicago-based Invenergy proposes to build a 1,500-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant south of the Casey Highway off Sunnyside Road. The proposal is in front of the borough and Lackawanna County planning commissions, but Jessup council will make the ultimate decision if the land will be rezoned for the power plant.

Close to 100 residents attended the council meeting, which lasted an hour. Almost all of the just over 20 residents who spoke said they were against the proposal.

Janine Pavalone, a Jessup resident and leader of the anti-plant group Citizens for a Healthy Jessup, pressured the council for information about Invenergy boring test holes at the proposed site. She said she has asked about the activity on the borough-owned land multiple times and filed Right to Know requests, but found no permits for the drilling.

"If they didn't apply for a permit, who gave them permission to be on borough land?" she asked.

Mabel Black read a Times-Tribune report that gas company UGI plans to extend 3 miles of new pipeline and upgrade nearly 20 additional miles so it can provide natural gas to the proposed plant. Ms. Black said this report made the power plant seem like a done deal.

"It looks like they're going to do this, and they don't care what the people of Jessup have to say," she said.

Councilman Michael Gasper also had a copy of the report and after the meeting he said UGI had not contacted council about plans to extend its pipeline in the borough.

Jason Petrochko said he was angry Invenergy had pitched annual payouts for the community. Recently the company said it would "forge a host community agreement" with Jessup, Valley View School District and local emergency companies that would provide them with an unspecified amount of money in addition to taxes.

"No one has ever had to bribe me to buy something that was good for me," he said.

Contact the writer:

lranker@timesshamrock.com, @lrankerNEWS on Twitter

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