Natural gas pipeline hearing draws fierce pushback over Homer City data center project

By QUINCEY REESE
TribLive

Dozens of environmental advocates and Indiana County residents — gripping signs protesting a data center slated for a 3,200-acre site outside Homer City — trickled into the Indiana Theater late afternoon Tuesday to voice concerns to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The department held a hearing at the Indiana Borough theater to gather feedback on a proposed natural gas pipeline for a power plant, which would serve the data center.

Homer City Redevelopment announced in April 2025 its plans to create a 4.5-gigawatt natural gas-fueled power plant and hyperscale data centers. Construction on the $10 billion project began last month.

Nebraska-based Kiewit Power Constructors Co., the builder for the power plant, estimates the project will create 10,000 onsite construction jobs and 1,000 direct and indirect permanent jobs in technology, operations and energy infrastructure.

The plant is expected to begin producing power in 2028.

The proposed 5.8-mile pipeline would stretch from an interconnection facility on Marco Road in Burrell Township to the plant, slated for Power Plant Road.

The pipeline, 30 inches in diameter, would require 10 temporary road crossings of streams, floodways and wetlands and 24 crossings located within streams, wetlands and floodways, the Department of Environmental Protection said.

Muddy Run, Blacklick Creek and various other tributaries to those streams would be impacted. The project was designed to avoid and minimize impacts to wetlands, streams and floodways, the department said.

Western Pennsylvania residents poised to voice concerns about the pipeline lined the theater’s cushioned seats Tuesday, the scent of popcorn permeating the dimly lit space. Impact to local waterways and questions about monitoring protocol for the proposed pipeline were among the topics of discussion.

‘We cannot afford to destroy our portion’

Dana Driscoll, an 11-year Indiana County resident who operates a farm, expressed fears the pipeline would pollute the water sources her land relies on.

“Under increasing drought stress, making water resources scarcer and more polluted is a problem,” Driscoll said. “We cannot afford to destroy our portion.”

Jane Kaminski, a farmer whose land abuts Blacklick Creek, noted significant work has been done across the past two decades to address acid mine drainage that once contaminated and left an orange hue to local waterways.

“As a farmer, I strive to do right by the land and water resources I utilize,” she said. “But I realize my efforts are meaningless when compared to the scale of potential disturbance and destruction resulting from projects just like this one.

“We’ve all seen the generations-old orange water in Blacklick Creek. There’s a lot of positive work being done on a meaningful scale to remedy that problem. So why would we allow a plan to go forward that can potentially set back these water restoration efforts by years and directly recontaminate the very same water we have been working so hard to improve?”

Project ‘will have real effects on our quality of life’

Leigh Hendrix — a member of Concerned Residents of Western Pa., an organization that opposes the power plant and data center project — spoke against the seemingly fast pace of the project and lack of transparency among the public.

“I’m frustrated with how many barriers are created that prevent everyday people from having real information and opportunities to shape what is happening in our communities,” Hendrix said. “Because we live here, and the human impact of this massive project and the pipeline built to serve it will have real effects on our quality of life.”

Sally Simpson, an Armstrong County resident, used her five-minute time slot to tell the stories of her grandfathers. One was a farmer who died from Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after decades of spreading weed killer on his fields, unaware of their toxic nature. The other was a coal miner who suffered from black lung disease.

She told the six department officials taking testimony Tuesday she fears a similar situation could happen in Homer City if the pipeline and data center project were to pollute local waterways.

“You don’t realize it until you look back years later,” said Simpson, who serves on the Ford City Borough planning commission. “You say ‘Wow, we really shouldn’t have done that. We should have put our foot down and not let that happen.’ ” Jennica Giroux, co-owner of Mother Earth Farm in Center, said she worries the project will push residents away from Indiana County.

Giroux, an Indiana County native, moved out of Pennsylvania after graduating from college in 2010. She returned to her hometown, with her husband and children, in 2017.

“My fear is that other young individuals, after recognizing the negative impact on the environment this pipeline and larger redevelopment project will have, will decide that Indiana County is no longer a community they would like to return to,” she said. “Without more folks wanting to settle down in this community and grow families and businesses, this community will lose its appeal and will forever be changed.”