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MAHANOY CITY — More than 400 inmates from State Correctional Institution/Mahanoy have something to say about plans to build a coal gasification plant next to their prison.
Over the past three weeks, 402 prisoners — 18 percent of the prison’s population of 2,268 — sent letters, many of which were form letters, to the Mahanoy Township supervisors objecting to the proposal.
“My obvious concerns are the excessive closeness of this plant to SCI-Mahanoy,” Joseph Schaeffer wrote in a July 23 letter. “This institution is not hermetically sealed. Although it is true there is central air, a percentage of that air is drawn from the outside.”
Waste Management and Processors Inc., Gilberton, is planning to build the $612 million facility next to the prison at 301 Morea Road, Frackville. The project is waiting for approval from the Department of Energy.
Edward R. Martin, SCI/Mahanoy assistant superintendent, said Monday he didn’t know the inmates had sent a mass-mailing to Mahanoy Township.
“But the inmates are free to write to whomever they desire to write to,” Martin said. “And the construction of that thing, from what I’ve been reading, that is an issue that can potentially affect them.”
The prison does not review inmates’ outgoing mail, but incoming mail is checked for contraband, Martin said.
The inmates aren’t the only people at SCI/Mahanoy who are worried about the plant. Timothy G. Teltow, Shenandoah, a corrections officer, questioned the location in a recent interview.
John W. Rich Jr., WMPI president, said in a July 21 interview that the plant is “environmentally benign.”
While some inmates, like Schaeffer, composed their own letters to Mahanoy Township, others, like inmate Gary E. Bivins, simply signed a form letter that was typed and circulated.
It stated: “With the center of the plant being less than half a mile from this facility and the outskirts of the plant at only 300 ft. from the center of this facility, the inmates and staff would be subjected to an unacceptable exposure to the toxic chemical fall-out from this plant. This, I believe, will result in a myriad of medical conditions for both inmates and staff, adding to the already escalating cost of providing adequate health care for inmates and the staff, thereby applying further pressure on the already existing strangle-hold on Pennsylvania taxpayers.”
These forms were sent to the township in bulk by inmates including Bryant Arroyo.
“This form of mailing was chosen as a matter of courtesy/convenience and to avoid an influx of mail dealing with the same subject matter,” Arroyo said in an Aug. 1 cover letter for the fifth package he sent the township, which contained 42 formal objections to the plant.
Arroyo has been working to voice his opposition to the plant for several months.
Packages of information Arroyo sent to The REPUBLICAN & Herald on July 17 and Aug. 1 contained correspondence showing his efforts to get help from the Department of Corrections, attorneys and other newspapers.
“We reject the notion that the buildings here would protect the inmates and staff from prolonged exposure to the hazardous chemicals because the assertions that the buildings here are ‘air-tight’ is an outright falsehood,” Arroyo said.
Arroyo was arrested in Lancaster County on Sept. 26, 1994, for allegedly killing his girlfriend’s 8½-month-old son, Jordan Anthony Shenk. In May 1995, Arroyo was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, Martin confirmed.
The township believes the prisoners should use other channels.
“Actually their concerns should be directed to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, their family support group located in Philadelphia or the U.S. Department of Energy,” Supervisor Sharon R. Chiao said. “We do not plan on answering any of these letters.”
However, Mahanoy Township does have a say in the project. Before WMPI can begin any construction, it must apply for building permits from both Mahanoy and West Mahanoy townships, Rich said July 21.
Meanwhile, the future of the project is also in the hands of U.S. Department of Energy scientists who are completing the Environmental Impact Statement for the Gilberton Coal-to-Clean Fuels and Power Project. A draft of that statement was released in November. The public was given the chance to make comment at two public hearings. Chiao asked a series of questions at the one held Jan. 10 at Shenandoah Valley High School. Letter and e-mail comments were also accepted by the DOE for a two-month period ending Feb. 8.
Although the comment period is closed, another will open when the final version of the study is published. The inmates will have an opportunity to share their comments, David J. Anna, director of public affairs for the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, said Monday.
“So any additional comments that are made they will certainly be considered an as the decision about the plant is being made,” he said.
Instead of mailing comments to the DOE now, Anna recommended the inmates wait until the final EIS is released.
“Many, if not all of their concerns may be addressed in the final EIS,” Anna said.
Besides, he said, right now there isn’t a contact where letters can be sent.
“That address will be published with the final EIS,” Anna said. |