Chanceford Township, Pa. – On Thursday, March 28, a coalition of conservation, recreation, and environmental organizations filed a formal legal pleading strongly opposing the pumped storage facility proposed for Cuffs Run and calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to deny the preliminary permit application for the project. The Lancaster Conservancy, Susquehanna National Heritage Area, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association, Farm & Natural Lands Trust of York County, and Chesapeake Bay Foundation joined together in this effort to show FERC the region’s vehement, unified opposition to this proposal.
“The joint protest demonstrates persuasively why FERC should respond to the concerns of so many by denying outright York Energy Storage’s application,” said Kate Gonick, Senior Vice President of Land Protection and General Counsel at the Lancaster Conservancy.
Cuffs Run (Photo by Hylon Plumb)
The $2.3 billion project, proposed by York Energy Storage LLC, would involve construction of a 1.8-mile dam and power turbine pumped storage facility at Cuffs Run ravine and creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna River. About 1,100 acres of land rich with natural, cultural, and recreational resources would be taken for use within the project boundary. The proposed facility would also displace over 40 residents and destroy preserved farms and forested lands that are critical to ensuring the ecological health of the Susquehanna Riverlands Conservation Landscape and waterways. Additionally, it would impact a scenic section of the Mason-Dixon Trail, a designated National Recreation Trail in York County; the viewshed from the popular multimodal Enola Low Grade Trail in Lancaster County; and the lower section of the Susquehanna River Water Trail, which is part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.
In the protest submitted to FERC, the coalition makes it clear that FERC needs to listen to the voices of everyone who has commented, overwhelmingly in opposition to the project: the hundreds of community members who filed comments with FERC; all the elected officials in the region, regardless of party; agricultural boards, planning commissions, and municipalities; and regional hunting, fishing and recreational groups.
The formal protest explains several different reasons why FERC should deny York Energy Storage’s application for a preliminary permit, the fourth such application for a preliminary permit since 1990. One of the arguments the coalition makes is that York Energy Storage lacks the general fitness to hold the permit because, among other reasons, they have no believable plan for obtaining the $12.5 million they will need to conduct the permit activities.
In order to protect the public interest, the coalition of organizations also urges FERC to deny the application by applying a new, higher standard for granting repetitive preliminary permits to prevent situations like this one at Cuffs Run, where the community has had to endure four preliminary permit applications in the last 34 years.
Another argument focuses on two required elements that York Energy Storage failed to include in its application. The coalition argues that the deficiencies should cause FERC to deny the application and that these deficiencies reinforce that York Energy Storage lacks the general fitness required for a permit.
Part of the Mason-Dixon Trail in the proposed project area (Photo by Hylon Plumb)
The five organizations also argue that FERC should deny the application because the project’s extreme impacts on surface water, groundwater, aquatic ecology, geology and soils, terrestrial ecology, land use, visual resources, cultural resources, Pennsylvania threatened and endangered species, farmland, forest land, and recreation are incompatible with the vibrant conservation and recreation landscape that now exists in the region.
“The Lancaster Conservancy is proud to lead this joint protest and greatly appreciates the participation of our partners,” said Lancaster Conservancy President and CEO Fritz Schroeder. “The lower Susquehanna River community is tired of having to respond to these repeated attempts to revive this failed pumped storage project every few years.”
York Energy Storage initially requested a permit for the project on Feb. 10, 2023. Following a series of deficiency letters from FERC and permit resubmission by York Energy Storage, FERC accepted the preliminary permit application for filing on Feb. 1, 2024. This started the clock on a 60-day period, or through March 31, 2024, to file comments or interventions with FERC on the project.
Learn more about the proposed pumped storage facility, why Lancaster Conservancy is opposed, and how community members can get involved at lancasterconservancy.org/protect-cuffs-run.
