Amy Roe's Delaware Voice Column Today

DE Voice: Amy Roe ~ Will data center end up hurting Newark?

Progress has been made in public disclosure re­garding The Data Cen­ters LLC’s power plant planned for Newark since my last Dela­ware Voice contribution in August. The city of New­ark hired attorney Max Walton to evaluate zoning issues and sponsored a public information workshop on Sept. 3. Reps. John Kowalko and Paul Baumbach hosted a town hall meeting on Sept. 24. The University of Delaware Faculty Senate hosted an open meeting on Oct. 14, and UD has launched an internal working group to review the proposed power plant and data center. Additional details have been uncovered using the Freedom of Information Act, and The Data Centers LLC filed their air permit application with DNREC.

We now know that The Data Centers LLC and the UD met with DNREC officials in No­vember 2011 to discuss permit requirements, and were ad­vised to “involve the communi­ty as early as possible.” The size of the power plant has grown since the 180 megawatts discussed in that meeting. During the public information session was 248 megawatts and the draft air permit appli­cation now states 279 mega­watts (248 megawatts for ener­gy generation plus an offline turbine to be used only during repairs).

The draft permit applica­tion describes how the power plant and cooling towers will emit approximately 74 tons of nitrogen oxides, 78 tons of carbon monoxide, 81 tons of volatile organic compounds, 9 tons of sulfur dioxide, 59 tons each of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM10) particulates, 72 tons of ammonia, 13 tons of hazardous air pollutants, 8 tons of sulfuric acid mist, and 901,134 tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (CO2 equivalent) per year. This will occur within a few hundred yards of high-density residential communities. The permit application does not address noise.

The News Journal reported the power plant would be the sixth largest emitter of nitro­gen oxides and the fourth larg­est emitter of carbon dioxide in the state.

Newark City Council has exercised authority over the purchased power agreement between The Data Centers LLC and the Delaware Munici­pal Electric Corporation, of which Newark is one of nine­member municipalities. Any agreement will now come be­fore City Council, and the deci­sion will not occur behind closed doors.

The issue of zoning seems much less clear; as the legisla­tive intent of Newark City Council when they adopted the special STC Zoning for the Chrysler site after it was pur­chased by the University of Delaware still must be deter­mined. Interesting, the Univer­sity of Delaware was already working closely with The Data Centers LLC about the power plant at the time the STC Zon­ing was adopted in March 2012, though there is no evidence to suggest that Newark City Council was privy to that in­formation.

The same could be said for the January 2013 electricity contract signed by the City of Newark and the University of Delaware, which grants UD specific privileges for a power plant constructed on their property. At the time that this was approved by City Council, DEMEC already signed a let­ter of intent to purchase 60 megawatts from the power plant, Newark’s city manager had endorsed the project in a letter to Delaware Economic Development Director Alan Levin, and the city solicitor instructed staff the power plant would be an “accessory use” to the data center and could avoid zoning review by City Council. Evidence that has come to light thus far suggests that the only ones in the nego­tiations for this electricity contract who were not aware of the power plant were New­ark’s elected officials who were voting on it.

With new information comes additional questions. What will the impact of the power plant be on the city of Newark’s contract with UD for electricity, and will it harm Newark’s single largest source of revenue ($3.5 million from electricity sold to UD)? Is the electricity contract and zoning on the property legally binding if critical information was withheld from elected offi­cials? Will this project open the door to more polluting land uses on UD’s campus? Have residents been disenfran­chised from decisions impact­ing their neighborhoods?

Amy Roe is a candidate for mayor of New­ark.

DELAWARE VOICE

AMY ROE

~*~