ATTN: Board Secretary – FORMAL TESTIMONY FOR THE RECORD RE: Opposition to Contract No. L-3930 (January 24th, 2026 Meeting)

Please ensure a copy of this testimony is provided to each individual Commissioner for their review prior to the vote on Saturday, January 24th, 2026.

 

Dear President Knick, Vice President Sankey, Secretary DiMarco, and Members of the Commission:

I am writing to urge you to reject the proposed exchange of 55 acres of State Game Lands 234 in Limerick Township (Contract No. L-3930). While the promise of additional acreage elsewhere is tempting, we must look at the human and environmental cost. Public land is not a real estate ledger, it is the physical heritage of our people.

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We have a terrifying roadmap of what happens when we prioritize corporate greed over the people: Northern Virginia. Residents there were told that Data Center Alley would bring prosperity. Instead, they watched as their forests were replaced by an endless sea of concrete and 24/7 industrial noise pollution.

 

AI/Data Center Impacts:

• The "Soda Straw" Effect: A hyperscale campus can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day, as much as a city of 50,000 people. Because this water is evaporated for cooling, it will never return to the Brunswick Aquifer.

• The Noise Pollution: In Virginia, residents live with a 24/7 low-frequency hum (often 60–70 decibels). This digital tinnitus destroys the peace of the forest and drives wildlife out of the buffer zones of remaining public lands.

• The Ratepayer Burden: Data centers were responsible for 63% of the recent price spike in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) capacity market, leading to a $9.3 billion increase in costs that will be billed to everyday Pennsylvania residents.

 

President Knick, you have been a hunter and angler for 54 years. You know the value of a single acre of public land when you are tracking game. If you vote for this swap, you are telling the hunters of Montgomery County that their access to a local, stocked hunting ground is secondary to the cooling needs of a computer server.

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Vice President Sankey, as a professor of Energy and Sustainability Policy, you are uniquely qualified to see past the developer’s marketing. You understand the concept of resource scarcity and cumulative impact. This project is a resource vampire. You have spent your career teaching the next generation how to manage soil and water, please do not allow those very resources in Limerick to be drained by a corporate machine that offers zero net-gain to the natural world.

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Secretary DiMarco, you were raised on a dairy farm, where stewardship is a daily labor. You know that you can not simply swap the soil of a local community for distant acreage and expect the local ecosystem to survive. You know that during a hot Pennsylvania summer, the data center’s cooling system will keep its servers humming while the water table drops, the wetlands on the remaining Game Lands will turn to dust, and the local livestock troughs will run dry. As a man of the earth, you know that replacement acreage in another county is a hollow promise if the land you leave behind is hydrologically broken. You would not sell the water rights off your own farm, do not sell the water rights of the hunters and citizens of Montgomery County.

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Commissioner Pride, Distinct 8 is your district. You have dedicated your life’s work to opening the doors of the outdoors to youth from every background. In Virginia, those youth now look at 85-foot-tall windowless walls instead of oaks. If we lose these 55 acres in Montgomery County, we are telling our youth that their access is for sale.

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Commissioner Koppenhafer and Commissioner Fredericks, as a wildlife biologist and as an environmental engineer, you are the scientists of our board. You know that 55 acres of industrial heat creates a dead zone. You also know that developers like Stronghold Digital have already been fined millions for violating grid rules in Pennsylvania. We can not trust these corporations with our public lands.

Commissioner Mitrick: As a surgeon, you know that a stable patient can still be in crisis. Our grid is in crisis. We are seeing a clustering effect where one 55-acre breach invites ten more. You’ve hunted these woods since 1981, you know that the peace of the forest is vital for human health.

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Commissioner Foradora and Commissioner Schwalm: As a business owner and as a sales consultant you both understand that a growth investment is only good if it does not bankrupt the consumer. This data center is an economic liability disguised as a tech boom. The 2025 PJM Capacity Auction results prove that the explosion in data center demand is the primary driver behind a $9.3 billion surge in grid costs. This is a regressive tax on every Pennsylvania resident. For a few dozen permanent jobs at this facility, you are asking every small business and family in the Commonwealth to pay higher utility bills to subsidize corporate greed. Do not trade our residents' financial security for a developer's one-time land deal.

 

President Knick, Vice President Sankey, Secretary DiMarco, and Members of the Commission, you are all stewards over this beautiful state and have the power to protect Pennsylvania. Do not use your power to turn the gifts of our Commonwealth into an industrial digital wasteland.

 

Reject Contract No. L-3930. Keep SGL 234 whole.

 

Respectfully,

 

David V. Celentano

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania