Nesquehoning Borough, Carbon County
Keel Infrastructure plans a four-building AI data center campus on industrial land in Nesquehoning that has conditional borough approval and is waiting on two DEP water permits.
Stronghold Digital Mining's Panther Creek waste coal plant in Nesquehoning was acquired by Bitfarms with the Scrubgrass plant in a $175 million deal completed in March 2025, and Bitfarms later signed a 350 megawatt power agreement with PPL for Panther Creek. November 2025: plans first go to the Carbon County Planning Commission and Bitfarms holds four informational meetings. December 2025: the applicant withdraws its phase 1 preliminary plan to resubmit the full development. February 23, 2026: borough planning commission approves a special exception. March 24, 2026: DEP accepts the Chapter 105 application for technical review. April 21, 2026: county planning commission recommends conditional plan rejection. April 22, 2026: borough council adopts data center Ordinance 2026-03. May 18, 2026: borough planning commission grants unanimous conditional preliminary approval. Late May 2026: borough council grants conditional preliminary land development approval. August 20, 2026: DEP public meeting and hearing in Lansford. Early September 2026: written comment period closes. Along the way DEP received the stormwater permit application on February 25, 2026 and the stream crossing application on March 13; the county planning commission tabled the plan on March 17 and recommended approval of the sewage planning module on June 16; PPL's stormwater permit for a 69 kV tap line to a new substation was listed as issued May 23; Keel stopped Bitcoin mining at the plant on June 29 but keeps selling its power; and DEP published a draft stormwater permit on July 18, 2026 with five years of wetland monitoring.
Update, October 26, 2026. On August 20, 2026 about 75 people attended DEP's information session at Panther Valley Junior-Senior High School, and about a dozen spoke against the project at the hearing that followed. DEP took written comments until September 4, 2026, and Carbon Node East said at an information session that construction could begin in 2027 if DEP approves the permits.
DEP's draft permit covers 88.62 acres of earth disturbance draining to Dennison Run and Broad Run, both Exceptional Value streams, plus Nesquehoning Creek and Exceptional Value wetlands, and it would require the developer to monitor wetland water tables for at least five years.
Pennsylvania Bulletin, Vol. 56, No. 29 (DEP notices)The developer's stream and wetland application lists overhead power, fiber and water line crossings of Dennison Run and fill in seven small wetland areas, about an eighth of an acre in all, for stormwater basins and data center buildings A, B and C.
Pennsylvania Bulletin, Vol. 56, No. 14 (DEP notices)The Panther Creek waste coal plant, which Keel keeps running to sell power, is a Title V major source of nitrogen oxides with two fluidized bed boilers, according to DEP's August 2026 permit renewal notice.
Pennsylvania Bulletin, Vol. 56, No. 34 (DEP notices)Keel posted a $40 million letter of credit to the utility for transmission links and substations serving Panther Creek and must add $60.8 million by January 31, 2027 once upgrades are done; a second power arrangement for the site carries about $82.9 million in estimated credit support.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR)Tactics: Blog posts, organizing meetings, testimony at DEP's August 20, 2026 hearing, and a lawsuit filed in March 2024 against Panther Creek Power and DEP
Mailing address PO Box 176, Kresgeville, PA 18333. The group also opposes other proposed data centers in Carbon County.
The plaintiffs argue the state failed to provide constitutionally guaranteed environmental protections and seek damages for pollution from the plant's burning of tires and tire-derived fuel.
Save Carbon County members (plaintiffs, represented by Freiwald Law) v. Panther Creek Power and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection · Pending; at the preliminary objections stage with briefing due July 2, 2026, according to Save Carbon CountyStormwater discharge permit for the data center campus, discharging to Broad Run, Dennison Run, Nesquehoning Creek and Exceptional Value wetlands.
Carbon Node East Development, LLC (applicant) · Pending; public hearing held August 20, 2026; no decision reported as of October 26, 2026Stream and wetland crossing permit; DEP's letter put the application under the Permit Decision Guarantee with a 93 business day decision timeframe. DEP's release also cites the number once as E13002226-001.
Carbon Node East Development, LLC (applicant) · Administratively complete March 24, 2026; public hearing held August 20, 2026; no decision reported as of October 26, 2026Preliminary plan for four data center buildings off Industrial Road; the county planning commission recommended conditional rejection on April 21, 2026 and the borough planning commission recommended conditional approval on May 18, 2026.
Carbon Node East Development, LLC; Keel Infrastructure · Conditionally approved (reported June 4, 2026); final plan submission still requiredIn Pennsylvania, the local zoning ordinance sets the route. A conditional use is decided by the elected governing body (supervisors, commissioners or council). A special exception or variance, and an appeal of a zoning officer’s decision, go to the Zoning Hearing Board. Each is a public hearing on a record: affected neighbors can ask for party status, cross-examine witnesses, and appeal. Municipalities can also adopt data center ordinances with enforceable standards.
Know your rights →Organized community opposition is the single most effective check on these projects in Pennsylvania. Show up to hearings, submit comment when it is taken, support legal and expert-witness costs, and press your municipality for a real ordinance. Pennsylvania municipalities cannot simply freeze applications, but a curative amendment under the Planning Code gives them a defined window to fix a defective ordinance.
How communities push back →