Montour

Riverkeeper's note: This page is designed to share facts about the Montour County rezoning request by Talen Energy. Information that is factual that may be missing to help better educate the public to make a more informed decision about this project should be emailed to us for addition to this page after it is vetted to the best of our ability. Again, the goal of this page is to provide information for local residents.

Running list of articles

The following list of articles related to the rezoning situation in Montour County are listed in order of release (newest at top). More information about the situation is available below. If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email and we will try to point you in the right direction.

Key upcoming meetings

Key upcoming meetings:

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025: Montour County Commissioners meeting at 11 a.m. at 435 East Front Street, Danville.
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025: Planning Commission Meeting at 5:30 p.m. at 435 East Front Street, Danville
Friday, Jan. 23, 2026: Public hearing with commissioners at 9:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in Danville. Learn more here. Download agenda here. Get directions to the church here.

Talen meeting

Below, you can listen to the Talen Energy online presentation held via virtual webinar on Nov. 17, 2025. Please note that it was conducted completely by Talen officials, answering certain pre-submitted questions.

Updated mapping

The following mapping overlay of currently owned parcels, rezoning requests, etc., was compiled by the Montor Area Recreation Commission and shared at the group's Oct. 27, 2025, monthly meeting. Check out an interactive version of this map in which you can look at specific areas by clicking here.

Letter from Talen to MARC

The following letter was provided to the Montour Area Recreation Commission (MARC) on Oct. 27, 2025, from Talen Energy ahead of MARC's monthly meeting.

Montour County Comprehensive Plan

A vital guide for commissioners or other county leaders when it comes to deciding things like rezoning within the county is the comprehensive plan, something Montour County recently was looking to update for the next 10 years.

Due to public demand and the growing number of stories, information and concern from local citizens about various projects in the county, the feedback portion for the comprehensive plan has been re-opened, but only for a limited time. Check out and take the online survey now to make sure your voice and opinion is included in the comprehensive plan.

A photocopy of the following letter was made available at the Montour County Planning Meeting on Oct. 15, 2025, to each person as he/she walked in along with the meeting agenda:

What's going on in Montour County?

On Aug. 18, 2025, Talen Energy, which owns the Montour Power Plant near Washingtonville, PA, and the popular 640-acre Montour Preserve a few miles north of the plant, submitted a petition for rezoning a number of properties it owns (or is considered an "equitable owner" for) within Anthony and Derry townships -- a total of 1,296.692 acres of land -- mostly from agricultural to industrial.

Talen's plans for the property after rezoning remain a mystery, and various officials who have attempted to sit in on meetings to find out more about those plans were required to sign nondisclosure agreements, which only fanned the flames of distrust and has led to a wide variety of speculation about what may be going on. A group of concerned citizens formed an online group on Facebook. They organized a meeting on Sept. 9, 2025, at the Washingtonville Fire Department that drew more than 200 local people looking for answers.

A bunch of misinformation has begun to circulate online concerning the project, fueled by fears of what may happen at these rezoned properties and what the long-term impacts could be on the local community, aquifers and the Montour Preserve. We offer this page as a place to provide as much transparency and information as possible and encourage local officials to help improve the transparency by offering additional information and facts that can be shared out with the public so that false rumors and unnecessary fears can be avoided ... and local citizens can be as informed and educated as possible to understand the process and respond as they choose.

Where is the rezoning requested?

We were able to secure a copy of the application for rezoning filed on Aug. 18, 2025. Below is the map of zoning from that application.

Notice the orange-shaded parcels, which are currently zoned agricultural. The pink sections of property are public/semi-public (including the Montour Preserve at the top). Please note that we have received information that Talen may be resubmitting maps and tweaking some of this info.

The map below, then, is how parcels of land would look after zoning changes. The lime-green color represents the new light industrial-zoned areas. Please note that the Montour Preserve's main area is still shaded in pink, representing public/semi-public zoning. This area includes the Nature Center and Educational building, all current trails, the lake, boat launch, fossil pit, pavilions and other features most people associate with the preserve.

What could be built in the rezoned areas?

As more information continues to slowly come out on this topic, Montour County Planning Director Greg Molter recently confirmed in a Daily Item newspaper story that Talen officials discussed two potential projects at a July meeting: a power station expansion and a data center.

A Talen spokesperson in the same story offered a statement regarding the company’s plans for the approximately 1,300 agricultural and public/semi-public acres it requested be rezoned as industrial:

“This change will align the zoning for these parcels with other Talen-owned land in the area. We are still assessing the viability of potential projects, and the rezoning request will help support any potential future development opportunity near the plant, which could include data centers,” the spokesperson said. “The rezoning process will take place publicly, and we look forward to discussing plans at the appropriate time with all stakeholders involved.”

Data centers are a hot-button topic and currently popping up throughout different parts of the country with a massive draw on the energy grid (hence the need to be close to a power plant) and water table for cooling of acres of computer processors. Check out this overview article on the amounts of water it can take for data center operation via an interview with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

Where do things stand with the Montour Preserve?

As shown in the maps above, Talen is not looking to rezone the immediate property known as the Montour Preserve that includes Lake Chillisquaque, various trail systems, the Educational Center and Nature Center building, fossil pit, boat launch, etc.

In fact, this specific piece of land is covered under a March 2021 settlement agreement between the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association and Talen Energy. Part of that agreement includes Talen eventually donating the preserve to an entity agreed upon by the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association within two years of when Talen is no longer in need of the lake as a backup cooling supply for the power plant. This includes "Lake Chillisquaque, the associated dam and adjacent surrounding lands, including the boat launch, parking lot areas, existing trail systems, pavilions, fossil pit, miscellaneous recreation buildings and the education center building, as delineated in" the following map:

However, it is worth pointing out that Talen is looking to rezone the public/semi-public parcel of land that joins the southeast border of this piece. In the zoning maps above, it is designated as 20MM, and begins around the access road off Preserve Road just above Chillisquaque Creek (the outflow from the lake) where it flows under Preserve Road to the intersection with Preserve Road and Sportsman Road. It is very near the southeastern corner of the lake and its spillway, just across the road. This parcel runs along the southern section of the property where Goose Woods Trail is located and includes the parking area where the preserve longstanding maple sugaring program occurs. The Maple Sugar Shack is near the border of this line.

In the October 2025 monthly meeting of the Montour Area Recreation Commission, director Bob Stoudt felt confident that Talen Energy was going to soon have a fix for this mapping that would better protect the Sugar Shack area of the preserve and not have it included in the 20MM area.

Any industrial use of this land (including access to the Chillisquaque Creek that runs out into this parcel near the southern border of this land, could have impacts to the ecology, recreational benefits and other aspects of the Montour Preserve. For context on that, check out this story.

How does the water flow in the area?

Using the Susquehanna River Basin Commission's (SRBC) public interactive online WAAV (Water Application and Approval Viewer) map, people can get an idea of how the Montour Power Plant, which uses evaporative cooling, gets its water. Evaporative cooling requires quite a bit of water to be used to cool the system, which then evaporates off in the large steam stacks seen at the power plant.

A piping system runs from Lake Chillisquaque, a manmade lake built by PPL in the 1970s as a back-up cooling source for the powerplant, to the nearby plant. Additionally, a 12-mile underground pipe runs from the West Branch of the Susquehanna River with a pump station located below Watsontown. The SRBC oversees water withdrawal and usage permitting across the watershed.

As you can see from clicking through the map, the powerplant is approved for up to 26.2 million gallons of consumptive water use per day (peak limit). When necessary, it can withdraw up to 28 million gallons of water per day from Lake Chillisquaque (peak limit). It's approved peak day withdrawal from the West Branch of the Susquehanna River is 36 million gallons per day. More details are available in this agreement between the SRBC and Talen (available to download publicly from the WAAV map) and this review (also available via the WAAV map).

These amounts are influenced by a wide number of other factors, such as water withdrawal needs by other local industry and communities (for example, the borough of Milton withdraws its public water from the river a few miles south of the Talen water line/pump), and water conditions (such as drought concerns).

Talen uses water withdrawn from the river to help maintain appropriate water levels in Lake Chillisquaque, as well. The lake is also fed by the middle branch of the Chillisquaque Creek. A study requested by the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association of Talen during the 2021 settlement agreement process done by Gannett-Fleming indicated that Lake Chillisquaque would be able to self-sustain its own water levels eventually when the piping system is no longer in use.

Contacts, resources and next steps

See an official copy of Pennsylvania's Municipalities Planning Code, which governs rezoning efforts and other law, here.
Check out an interactive map of the zoning and requests developed by the Montour Area Recreation Commission here.
Rezoning decisions ultimately come through the county commissioners. In Montour County, the chair is Rebecca Dressler with Scott Lynn and Trevor Finn as the other two commissioners. You can learn more about them and contact them directly here.
Anthony Township's website and pertinent information can be found here. Specifically, the elected officials of the township can be found here.
Derry Township website can be found here with elected officials page here.
Directly email Montour County Commissioner Rebecca Dressler at [email protected]
Directly email Montour County Commissioner Trevor Finn at [email protected]
Directly email Montour County Commissioner Scott Lynn at [email protected]
An interactive GIS map of all parcels of Montour County can be accessed here.
Quarterly surface water sampling results of nearby streams can be found here.

The following are zoning maps from Washingtonville borough, Derry Township and Anthony Township):

Bird data of species related to the Montour Preserve include the following links:

eBird data of more than 200 different bird species observations at the preserve from 2020-2024 (not a conclusive list, but a large one)
BirdNet unit that records, IDs and uploads vocalizations in real time at preserve observation pond
BirdNet PUC unit that records, IDs and uploads vocalizations in real time by nearby property close to region considered for rezoning

Montour rezoning

Running list of articles

Key upcoming meetings

Talen meeting

Updated mapping

Letter from Talen to MARC

Montour County Comprehensive Plan

What's going on in Montour County?

Where is the rezoning requested?

What could be built in the rezoned areas?

Where do things stand with the Montour Preserve?

How does the water flow in the area?

Contacts, resources and next steps

Your Pollution Hotline Number:
570-768-6300

BY BECOMING A SUSQUEHANNA NEIGHBOR TODAY.
FROM CLEAN WATER FLOW THRIVING COMMUNITIES.

Montour rezoning

Running list of articles

Key upcoming meetings

Talen meeting

Updated mapping

Letter from Talen to MARC

Montour County Comprehensive Plan

What's going on in Montour County?

Where is the rezoning requested?

What could be built in the rezoned areas?

Where do things stand with the Montour Preserve?

How does the water flow in the area?

Contacts, resources and next steps

Your Pollution Hotline Number:​570-768-6300

BY BECOMING A SUSQUEHANNA NEIGHBOR TODAY.​FROM CLEAN WATER FLOW THRIVING COMMUNITIES.

Your Pollution Hotline Number:
570-768-6300

BY BECOMING A SUSQUEHANNA NEIGHBOR TODAY.
FROM CLEAN WATER FLOW THRIVING COMMUNITIES.