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PENNSDALE -- At the hearing for Muncy Township's data center ordinance, Dewey Waugh and his wife, Karin, whose home is near a proposed data center, offered the supervisors and the planning commission revisions to the ordinance, prepared by an environmental lawyer, which they feel would make the document more stringent.
Waugh was visibly upset when Township Solicitor Joe Orso III, of Rudinski, Orso and Associates, rejected the suggested revisions as too "onerous."
"Most of those, if not all of those proposed changes, in my view, are unenforceable -- too onerous. The court would strike them down," Orso said.
Stating that was his preliminary opinion, Orso continued, "We're not going to adopt regulations that are so onerous that they are going to buy us a ton of lawsuits."
Waugh, who has been critical of the chair of the supervisors, Terri Lauchle, for what he considers her lack of action when the proposed data center was first presented to the township.
"First of all, I've spent the last six months trying to straighten out the mess that Terri basically got us into for not doing, or having an understanding of doing, her job," Waugh stated.
"I got together with a group of people who decided to take it upon themselves to understand all about data centers and what they can do to best present a fair document. That is, if a data center is fit for here and okay for here, fine. But if it's not, then put the strongest language together to try to make them as responsible as possible," Waugh said.
Waugh said that he was involved in drafting environmental lawyer John Smith's help in writing the lawsuit that is challenging the data center developer's claim of deemed approval.
"That was together with the group that we're involved in. We worked and got John Smith to give you that ten years that you said it would be before we'd ever have a data center here. Our group did that. I did that personally, talking with John Smith through a series of events that happened through training, webinars, and trying to understand what data centers are and what they're going to do to our community," Waugh said.
Waugh said that he tried for a month or so to get a copy of the township's proposed data center ordinance from the planning commission. He contended that the planning commission was aware that there were people who were willing to "give a stronger defense for this township for an ordinance."
"John Smith is one of the four attorneys, national attorneys, who have worked on the new ordinance that I hope you guys will read for yourself," he said.
He asked the supervisors not to make any decisions at the hearing on the data center ordinance because there were no experts who helped draft it.
"No experts were brought in. Nobody from outside that has any in-depth background of the national impact of these data centers were brought in. I'm dealing with national people that have dealt with this all over the country. The strength of that and the strength of the ordinance that you now have, Joe, in front of you, you can pick that apart. But John Smith is the one who did... Article One, Section 27 felt it was important because of the environmental impact that we now know is involved in data centers.
Waugh argued that everyone should be able to see the ordinance with the suggested revisions.
"I would like the township to publicly put that version that I sent you on the website. Let everybody see it and everybody have a chance to review that and comment on the strength of that versus the weakness of the one that we have in place," Waugh said.
Although he admitted that the local people who helped draft the township's ordinance had given it their all, he cautioned, "You're not playing with somebody equal to somebody else in another township. You're playing against the New York Yankees when you go against data center people and their attorneys, you've got to get in the league where they're at. You've got to get experts and you've got to get information and documentation."
"For you to say, Joe, that there's no merit, that that thing is going to bring lawsuits. That's a bunch of BS. John Smith and Maya and the other two attorneys are national attorneys, and they will represent, and they have proven track records on downing things that don't have a fit that create a hardship to communities. This data center has created hardships all over the country, and people are starting to fight back. It's about time we wake up and realize where we're at. We have to fight this, and we need the strongest ordinance that we can put in place, and we don't have it right now," Waugh said.
He again asked the supervisors to publish the document with the revisions on their website for people to review, which Orso stated they are not obligated to do.
"If people don't like it, that's fine. But that ordinance will give us the strength we need. If anything is going to come into this township, it's going to have to go through that ordinance first," Waugh said.
At the end of the hearing, Waugh offered to email a copy of the revised ordinance to anyone who asked.