PPL Will Build for Community on Land Near Montour Power Plant

PPL Generation will soon begin work on a 75-acre public recreational facility near its Montour power plant for the residents of Columbia and Montour counties.

Supervisors in Madison Township, Columbia County, have approved the project plans, which have been in the works for several years. The planning involved extensive input from a group of local residents.

“PPL is very interested in understanding and meeting community needs. That is especially true at the Montour plant,” plant manager Michael Munroe said. “We’re a major employer in the area. The environmental improvements that are under construction at the plant are creating additional jobs. And our Montour Environmental Preserve has long been an important community asset for recreation and education.”

Township officials expressed their support for the project and credited PPL for the level of cooperation it has shown in developing plans for the recreational facility.

“The supervisors and Planning Commission of Madison Township believe the recreation park will be a great benefit to the township and the surrounding areas in general,” said Jordan Newman, chairman of the Madison Township Planning Commission. “PPL was very cooperative, and we enjoyed working with the company to get this project started.”

The project, which is expected to take four to six years to complete, includes soccer fields, a baseball field, a softball field, an outdoor amphitheater that can hold 1,500 people, a primitive camping area and parking for more than 200 vehicles. A longer-term phase of the project could result in an additional 125 acres of recreational facilities for the community.

PPL will develop the project, located along White Hall Road (Route 44) near the intersection of Schoolhouse Road, and maintain the facilities in conjunction with the Montour Environmental Preserve, which offers a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities as well as numerous public programs on nature and the environment.

The project will use Stabil-Fill™ as a base material. Stabil-Fill is an environmentally safe product made from coal ash that is stabilized with hydrated lime.
 
PPL beneficially uses more than 90 percent of the coal ash produced at its power plants. The company has been making Stabil-Fill from Montour ash for 10 years, and has used Stabil-Fill in a variety of construction projects including a baseball field at the Jerseytown Community Center and a shooting backstop at the Little Fishing Creek Rod & Gun Club.

The Montour power plant in Derry Township, Montour County, generated more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2005, enough to supply the annual needs of about 1 million homes. The plant has about 250 full-time employees.

PPL Corporation, headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls about 11,500 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.