Data Center Debate Hits Schuylkill County

The data center debate in Schuylkill County officially got real this week.

Nearly 40 residents – mostly from Frackville – attended Tuesday’s regular meeting of New Castle Township supervisors to voice their opposition to a proposed data center near their homes.

While New Castle officials say nothing is actually official in terms of a proposed data center at the township’s border with Frackville, the several dozen residents of Frackville urged them to reject it once it hits their desk.

Ryan Twardzik, the son of State Rep. Tim Twardzik, served as spokesman for the group of residents. He submitted 81 letters he’s collected from people who expressed their opposition to a data center project that New Castle supervisors acknowledged is real but they haven’t heard anything from its developers in some time.

Twardzik said a pending sale of land adjacent to the Interstate 81 ramp near Frackville is the first step for Schuylkill County in the “artificial intelligence hype cycle.”

In comments to New Castle supervisors, Twardzik said the pending sale is expected to be completed on Sept. 19. It’ll transfer land from Mount Laurel Enterprises to KRNL Data Centers, a developer which promotes itself as being “backed by private equity partners Heights Advisors and Legacy Partners” and “specializes in identifying/providing development-ready properties for new data center construction.”

Twardzik said the plan, as he understands it, would create 850-foot long, tall data centers on the land. A draft layout of the data center campus shows four structures near a PPL Electric substation.

The land in question straddles the border between New Castle Township and Frackville with Interstate 81 on one side and Laurel St. in Frackville on the other side.

Among the many concerns Twardzik stated in his comments to supervisors on Tuesday were the destruction of the aesthetic of the property he purchased with his wife, air, light and noise pollution, and Schuylkill County and his community being used by this developer.

“These developers are from New York City. Data center developers tend to be like vultures. (Data center developers) promise money but it’s not free. The cost comes at our expense,” he said. “They view us an engineering project.”

Twardzik also expressed concerns that many have across the country regarding data center development. He said they’re not job creators outside of some temporary construction positions and they consume massive amounts of energy.

“Hundreds of megawatts will be used every single day,” he said. “Data centers are resource-hungry monsters.”

The proposed data center campus is nothing new to New Castle supervisors, Solicitor James Conville told the group of concerned residents at Tuesday’s meeting.

“This has been a dead issue since May,” he said, relating that communication between the township and KRNL has been spotty, especially recently.

Further, Conville and New Castle secretary/treasurer Kim Lutzkanin they’ve received nothing formal from the developers about plans for a data center campus.

“We have yet to get a completed application,” she said.

For now, until that happens or more information is received by the township, Lutzkanin said, “Our position is we don’t have a position.”

Conville added there’s nothing the township could do now to affect the sale of the property to the developer.

He said the developer would be seeking to amend the township’s zoning map to allow for a data center to be constructed in their desired location. The developer would likely require a zoning variance to allow it to put the proposed data center on conserved land.

However, no official meetings have been scheduled so far to that end.

State Rep. Twardzik echoed some of the concerns expressed by his son. Though he believes the current proposed location would likely create a nuisance for residence in that area of Frackville, he’s not opposed to the idea of data centers locating in Schuylkill County.

He just believes a better spot exists for any such proposed facilities.

“This is the wrong project in the wrong place,” Twardzik said, believing the data centers would be a better fit in an industrial park.

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