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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Steve Mocarsky</p><p>smocarsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Aaron Sampson, founder of Moxie Energy and currently president and chief executive officer, speaks at a public hearing at Berwick Area High School on Tuesday to collect comment on an emissions plan for a proposed gas-fired power plant. Moxie Energy wants to build a plant in Salem Township along Mingle Inn Road. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_moxie01.jpg</photo0><caption0>Aaron Sampson, founder of Moxie Energy and currently president and chief executive officer, speaks at a public hearing at Berwick Area High School on Tuesday to collect comment on an emissions plan for a proposed gas-fired power plant. Moxie Energy wants to build a plant in Salem Township along Mingle Inn Road. </caption0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_moxie02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dean Marshall of Benton speaks out at a public meeting against Moxie Energy wanting to build a power plant in Salem Township along Mingle Inn Road. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_moxie02.jpg</photo1><caption1>Dean Marshall of Benton speaks out at a public meeting against Moxie Energy wanting to build a power plant in Salem Township along Mingle Inn Road. </caption1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_moxie03.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Gary Gregory of Conyngham speaks in favor of Moxie Energy building a gas-fired power plant in Salem Township along Mingle Inn Road. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_moxie03.jpg</photo2><caption2>Gary Gregory of Conyngham speaks in favor of Moxie Energy building a gas-fired power plant in Salem Township along Mingle Inn Road. </caption2></div></div>
<p>BERWICK &#8212; About twice as many people spoke out against a natural gas-fired power plant proposed for Salem Township as supported it Wednesday at a public hearing on the plant&#8217;s emissions plan.</p><p>But a company official says the negative comments he heard were based on emotion and misinformation.</p><p>Virginia-based Moxie Freedom Energy intends to build a 1050-megawatt power plant fueled with natural gas flowing through the Transco pipeline that passes under 150 acres of farmland along Mingle Road and U.S. Route 11, about 5 miles from the Susquehanna nuclear power plant operated by Talen Energy.</p><p>The state Department of Environmental Protection hosted the hearing at Berwick High School to collect comment on Moxie&#8217;s emissions plan.</p><p>Leonard Rossi, of Sugarloaf Township, said he checked on Moxie&#8217;s background, &#8220;and they have an impeccable reputation. I don&#8217;t see why it shouldn&#8217;t be built.&#8221;</p><p>Gary Gregory, Conyngham Borough council president, said the plant would bring family-sustaining jobs as well as an opportunity to replace high-emission coal-fired plants with a plant that would use cleaner-burning fuel.</p><p>&#8220;I want to see it done right, and I have confidence that it will be done right. I think it&#8217;s an opportunity to give the local economy a real boost,&#8221; Gregory said.</p><p>He also noted that Gov. Tom Wolf wants to institute a tax on natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to help boost education funding and lower school taxes, and location of the plant here would boost gas consumption.</p><p>Freddie Fransen, of Salem Township, however, said he has serious environmental concerns.</p><p>&#8220;Whatever projects the gentlemen before me here had, with ideas to building some economic windfall for the people, they don&#8217;t live in Salem Township. I do. I&#8217;m the one who has to be around this,&#8221; Fransen said.</p><p>&#8220;If a nuclear power plant is putting out emissions and then we&#8217;re talking about putting another nuclear (reactor) in there, and then within a 3-mile radius of those two, we&#8217;re talking about another gas-fired power plant, that&#8217;s an awful lot of emissions for Salem Township to have to endure while everybody else reaps the rewards,&#8221; Fransen said.</p><p>Fransen also said the amount of groundwater that would be consumed for plant operations &#8220;has never been extracted from the ground anywhere nearby. I can&#8217;t imagine you&#8217;re not going to effect people&#8217;s water tables within a certain geographic location.&#8221;</p><p>Aaron Samson, CEO/President of Moxie Energy, said after the hearing that the plant being air-cooled rather than water-cooled cost an additional $30 million investment, and &#8220;that&#8217;s what allows us to use so little water.&#8221; He said the plant would use an average of about 25,000 gallons per day. It was permitted for a maximum use of 62,000 gpd.</p><p>Fransen also bemoaned the displacement of wildlife &#8220;for somebody else&#8217;s benefit, not the people of Salem Township.&#8221;</p><p>Brian Danowski said he lives &#8220;right across from the proposed site&#8221; and noticed that &#8220;everybody in favor of the plan &#8230; don&#8217;t live that close to it.&#8221;</p><p>Also concerned about effects on the water table, he noted that if he and his wife both take a shower on the same day, &#8220;we don&#8217;t have water for a day. The idea that they&#8217;re going to take this much water out of the ground is insane.&#8221;</p><p>Danowski said he doesn&#8217;t want his son growing up with &#8220;a nuclear power plant in his back yard and a gas-fired plant in his front yard. I&#8217;m not rich, I can&#8217;t move. I&#8217;m stuck there. I can&#8217;t see this being good for him or me or my wife or my parents,&#8221; he said, also anticipating sewage and noise problems associated with the plant.</p><p>Angela McCabe, of Salem Township, told DEP officials that she has respiratory problems because of air pollution &#8220;and it just floors me that you guys would consider putting another thing that&#8217;s going to impact the environment when we have trouble breathing now.&#8221;</p><p>Colleen Connolly, community relations coordinator for DEP, said she heard &#8220;some legitimate concerns&#8221; from the public about water withdrawals, sewage overload and emissions. She said the Susquehanna River Basin Commission has authority over water withdrawals, that the plant would connect to a public sewer line, and that it would have to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emission standards.</p><p>&#8220;Everyone always has a concern about the aggregate effects of all these plants popping up &#8212; two so far, and this would be the first one built in Luzerne County,&#8221; Connolly said.</p><p>Samson said most of the comments he heard were &#8220;a mix of emotion and misinformation. You can&#8217;t respond to all of it, no matter what. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you&#8217;re developing biomass renewables or wind or solar. Somebody doesn&#8217;t like everything, so we do our best to address the issues.&#8221;</p><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>GIVE YOUR OPINIONThe Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will accept written public comment on Moxie Freedom Energy&#8217;s emissions plan until 4 p.m. July 17. Comment can be mailed to Mark Wejkszner, Air Quality Program Manager, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701 or emailed to mwejkszner@pa.gov.The plan can be viewed at DEP&#8217;s Northeast Regional Office at that same Public Square address. Call 570-826-2511.</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.</shirttailMeta></div>

Public give DEP an earful on gas-fired power plant proposed for Salem Township