South Strabane Planning Commission tables fossil fuel ordinance
Panel recommends further review
The South Strabane Planning Commission last week tabled a proposed ordinance regarding fossil fuel power generation facilities after a lengthy discussion prompted several edits that require further review.
The ordinance is the final portion of a trio of three related ordinances that were drafted and adopted throughout the year relating to data centers.
Ordinances regarding data center development and noise and dust were adopted unanimously by the board of supervisors in June, with the fossil fuel ordinance repeatedly tabled for several rounds of revisions.
In September, it was tabled after a resident pointed out that the draft ordinance had several missing paragraphs of text from the previous version, including sections relating to environmental protection and legal enforcement procedures.
By the October board meeting, most of the missing text had returned, but several omissions remained.
Township Solicitor Dennis Makel took responsibility for the issues with the draft text, and said they were caused by inadvertent “typographic error,” and promised to correct them.
The ordinance appeared to be fully restored when it appeared before the township planning commission on Thursday for review, but several residents had lingering concerns.
Township homeowner Cynthia Rossi wants to see the draft ordinance edited to include more explicit protections for livestock, and revised language surrounding nearby railroads.
Rossi said since data centers may present a heightened risk for fires, trains that carry combustible hazardous materials such as butane and compounded plastic products should be explicitly included within the required list of setbacks in the ordinance.
Commission Member Fred Pozzuto said it was a “major omission” for the draft ordinance to not have a specific section relating to storage containers for oil and gas products, which may be used if a potential data center cannot connect to a consistent fuel source such as a natural gas pipeline.
Commission Chairman Thomas Steele said that while these types of storage containers are already regulated under various state and federal laws, the township should do more to include such language in its own ordinance.
He also said the ordinance should be edited to clarify the difference between personal diesel backup generators and commercial-scale power generation facilities that are used by data centers.
Makel originally recommended that the commission pass the ordinance back to the Washington County Planning Commission for its approval, since so much had changed since they first reviewed it, but eventually recommended tabling the ordinance to make a round of further changes.