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Council read a prepared statement insisting the eminent domain vote and the LNG terminal are unrelated...on the same night they voted to acquire the LNG adjacent land without a word of discussion.
Eddystone’s July meeting ran short. Just under 90 minutes, and most of it was routine borough business. The elephant in the room was the land acquisition tied to one of the biggest fights on the Delaware River waterfront right now, and council spent more time debating a bullshit borough phone policy than they spent discussing LNG.
The eminent domain vote
During public comment on action items, a resident asked council to clarify why the borough is condemning property at 291/Industrial Highway. The solicitor explained that it’s for the “Second Street Extension” which is a road project meant to relieve truck traffic backing up out of Penn Terminals during peak hours.
Then…the ordinance up for a vote later that night was for the acquisition of 1001 Industrial Highway through the use of eminent domain...the same exact address tied to the LNG adjacent Eddystone Energy site that’s been advancing behind NDAs and closed door meetings for months. When the actual vote came up in the action items, there was zero discussion. Motion, second, “not hearing any comments,” unanimous approval, next item.
The ONLY real conversation about this land happened before the vote tonigh, and it was framed entirely around trucks, not gas lol. That’s how they walked the controversial acquisition through the meeting.
The statement
Council President Stewart read a prepared statement, originally issued as a press release on June 25th in response to inquiries from the Inquirer and the Delaware County Daily Times, addressing “public discussion regarding a potential liquefied natural gas or LNG facility along the Delaware River” within Eddystone’s borders. The statement said that in 2025, council members met with representatives associated with the proposed project for “informational discussion purposes” only, and Stewart insisted that those meetings didn’t mean that the Council gave approval or any sort of endorsement. He promised a thorough review process with public input if/when permit applications are actually submitted.
Then, the statement went out of its way to clarify that the Second Street Extension, the same eminent domain acquisition council voted on earlier in this same meeting, is a “separate infrastructure project” that’s been in planning since 2010, unrelated to the LNG facility.
A borough does not proactively draft language distinguishing a road project from an energy project unless people are already asking whether they’re connected lol…
Reporters started calling. Council read it into the record on the same night they voted, without discussion…to acquire land at that exact address, and then told the room the two things have nothing to do with each other. Maybe that’s true. But they are basically saying “trust us bro.” They don’t draft statements for fights they think they’re winning quietly.
Public comment
After the statement, council opened the floor, and only three residents used it...
Kayla Taylor, a nine yr resident, gave the best public comment of the night. She specifically called for a residential protection ordinance…a permanent zoning buffer keeping this type of hazardous industry away from homes and the elementary school that would live right next door to the terminal. She argued that an evacuation plan only matters after something’s already gone wrong, while a protective ordinance stops the danger from ever being present. “Let’s make it clear that our safety is not for sale.”
Another resident went into some history…there was an explosion at an ammunition plant in Eddystone, four days after the US declared war on Germany, killed 139 people, mostly women. The blast was felt for miles and reportedly threw bodies into the Delaware River.
A third speaker, was a business owner. He asked the most practical question of the night, “has anyone actually seen a site plan? Where are the lines drawn? Is Penn Terminals involved, given their existing dock permits?”
Nobody on the Council had anything to say.
A business owner two blocks from the proposed site cannot get an answer about the footprint of a facility that could take his building.
The rest of the meeting
Everything else was standard borough stuff. Swearing ins, presentations on the grant funded sewer study program. Police and fire reports passed without comment.
Council spent an outsized chunk of the night on an $83000 Chevy Silverado dump truck and on a borough cell phone policy so procedurally confusing that a council member asked mid debate, “what are you voting on then?”
Talk about a waste of time..Eddystone residents deserve better than “that’s a separate project,” read off a script, as the answer…
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I'm embarrassed to say that I wasn't even aware of this situation. Thank you for your continued effort and great work.
😬🏞🥺
Great job! Sounds like residents need to initiate a series of Right to Know requests, and the County needs to be engaged by EVERYONE with 100 miles of this location. The damage from an explosion goes far beyond the physical limits into the social and economic impact of such an event in a heavily populated area. This is insane, and NDAs with government officials should be illegal, except for executive matters codified by law (personnel, sale of property, etc.).