Nesquehoning officials heard from several Carbon County residents about a proposed plan for a coal burning company to burn tire derived fuel as part of its fuel source.

On Wednesday, members of Save Carbon County, as well as area residents spoke to borough council over their concerns about Panther Creek’s proposed application for the added fuel source. The application is being reviewed by the state Department of Environmental Protection with no official timeline when a decision on the matter will be made.

Before the comments, council President David Hawk recused himself from leading the visitor portion of the meeting because he is employed at Panther Creek. He turned over the gavel to Vice President Mary Fox for the hearing of visitors.

Fox said that she is a lifelong resident of the Hauto portion of Nesquehoning and had dealings with DEP since 1993 about the cogeneration plant from the dirt that it causes along roadways and on properties, to the truck traffic that utilizes borough roads numerous times a day.

“I feel your pain,” she said before turning over the floor to visitors.

Brandon Fogal, representing Save Carbon County, again spoke out about the group’s position on the matter, saying that the findings being released do not represent the whole picture of what contaminates and particulates are being emitted by burning shredded tires.

He spoke about the fly-ash that is created from burning waste coal and how it has affected the area and pointed out that a petition against the permit has received just under 400 signatures as of Wednesday.

Joseph Kennedy said that he has questions, pointing out that if they were looking for a better fuel source than waste coal, why not use anthracite coal from the active coal mines on the other end of town.

“One ton of anthracite produces about 25,000 BTUs,” he said.

William Longacre, who lives about a quarter mile from the plant, pointed out that the borough has an ordinance clearly stating that rubbish and tires are not to be burned within borough limits and said that should be enforced when it comes to Panther Creek.

“This is our borough,” he said. “We pay taxes here. Why are they allowed to do it?”

He pointed out that Nesquehoning is turning into “ground zero” for pollutants, saying that he and his wife have breathing problems, houses are covered in soot and coal dust and roads are filthy from truck traffic.

Longacre said he spoke with state Rep. Doyle Heffley, but said that he lives in Palmerton so it’s not as big of a concern to him.

Heffley said Tuesday that the plant permit is in the hands of the Department of Environmental Protection and the situation is monitored carefully by DEP and the federal Envronmental Protection Agency.

"I feel it's important to find a balance," Heffley said, but stressed, "If it’s going to happen want to see it done right."

Longacre said, “They (Palmerton) had a zinc disaster years ago and people died of cancer. Are we supposed to repeat that all over again? We already have a superfund site next to it from dumping batteries.”

James Whitehead of Mahoning Township said that Heffley’s response on a phone town hall meeting that he was in support of the tire burning because it gives jobs to people in Carbon County; adding that he said that Sen. David Argall was also in favor of Panther Creek’s proposal based on the response he gave during the town hall meeting.

Fox said that council is at “the bottom of the totem pole” in the chain of command when it comes to this permit.

She told residents that they need people who are state affiliated because they are the ones who have more say with DEP than the borough does.

Last month, Panther Creek’s owner, Stronghold Digital Mining Inc., spoke out about some information Save Carbon County had presented.

Officials said that the facility has helped clean large amounts of waste coal throughout Pennsylvania, including the Nesquehoning coal pile, restoring over 250 acres of previously unusable land and cleaning up over 3.8 billion gallons of acid mine drainage water from the Lausanne Tunnel.

The application, the company states, regarding burning tire shreds with waste coal is due to lowering quality of culm, which means another fuel source is necessary to achieve the same results.

Stronghold pointed out that both DEP and the Environmental Protection Agency already recognize tire derived fuel as a legitimate fuel additive to culm burned in its boilers.

Panther Creek, which has been in operation since the 1990s before being bought by Stronghold as a bitcoin mining operation, is an 80 megawatt generating resource to the electrical grid if needed.