Figure 1: Special Event Passenger Train in Schuylkill County
From my family house in Deer Lake, Schuylkill County, PA, a faint sound of a train whistle can be heard over the mountains. While trains are not active and useful for passengers in the county, they still carry freight throughout the state like they did during the anthracite coal boom, though not as frequently (1).
TRANSPORTATION
Regional rails like the Reading and Northern Railroad span throughout the county, covering 133 miles in Schuylkill and 315 overall, and carrying 23,000 cartloads of freight annually (1). These historic railroads still connect local industry on a small scale, while in their heyday they connected the county’s anthracite coal to various different counties and industries. Passenger train rides are a treat rather than common in the county, popping up on special days thanks to Railway Restoration Project 113 (RRP) (2). One of Schuylkill County’s biggest transportation issues is the lack of proper public transportation and transit infrastructure. Because Schuylkill County spans wide and includes many rural towns and agricultural operations, cars are a necessity to travel place to place. The limited public transit the county has is available through the Schuylkill Transportation System (STS) bus lines. These bus routes, depicted in the figure below, do not span county wide and only operate in the most populated areas (3).
Figure 1: STS Bus Route
Walking from place to place in Schuylkill County is virtually impossible due to the lack of walkable/bikable infrastructure and the county spread. (4). For example, if I wanted to access the nearest grocery store from my family’s house in Schuylkill County by foot, I would have to walk four miles to merely arrive at the store, not to mention having to walk along country roads without sidewalks to get there, lest I wished to walk alongside the highway for the majority of that stretch, which also has no sidewalks. According to the United States Agency of Environmental Protection (EPA), most of Schuylkill County is considered the least walkable according to their scale, only having tiny pockets of walkability in densely populated areas. Below is an image of their interactive map. (4).
Figure 2: EPA Schuylkill County Walkability Map
On this map, orange means least walkable, white is less walkable, and green is easily walkable. Notice that green is only visible in tiny pockets throughout the county.
ENERGY
Schuylkill County is home to eight power plants, making it an energy producing county (5).
The power plants, based on type, are listed as follows:
Coal powered plants:
- John B Rich Memorial Power Station
- St Nicholas Cogen Plant
- Westwood Generation
- Wheelabrator Frackville
Figure 3: St. Nicholas Cogeneration Plant
Landfill Gas
- Broad Mountain
- Gold Mills Pine Grove
Figure 4: Broad Mountain
Wind
- Locust Ridge Wind Farm
Figure 5: Locust Ridge Farm
Annually, Schuylkill County produces 1,760,784 MWh of electricity, with only 303,595 MWh being renewable. (5). 82% of the county’s electricity is produced using coal, which emits
1,818,994,938 kgs of CO2 annually. (5). This is worrisome because not only is coal not a “clean” energy source, it is nonrenewable, so these plants can only operate while the limited supply of coal gets depleted. Schuylkill County is ranked 5th out of Pennsylvania’s 68 counties for worst levels of pollution from electricity use, no doubt due to the high levels of coal energy production. (5).
STAKEHOLDERS
Local stakeholders hold value in what happens to energy production and transportation in this county. They are listed below:
- Electricity Companies
- Companies and their employees have a stake in energy costs for livelihoods and profits.
- Electricity Consumers
- Consumers care about energy sources and the bills they must pay.
- Coal Industry
- Have stake in the coal energy produced in the county
- Engineers
- Help to plan cleaner or more profitable power plants or design easier public transportation routes
- Power Plants
- Power Plants and their employees have a stake in if the plants run as normal or not
- Schuylkill Transportation Service
- As the provider of bus and rideshare programs, they have interest in the places citizens live and wish to travel
- Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce
- Has stake in local citizens, businesses, and infrastructure
- Elderly People
- Have larger stake in public transport than younger folks due to difficulties of driving a car
- Car Dealerships
- Rely on sales in care centered areas like Schuylkill County
SOLUTIONS
Some local solutions and neighboring county solutions may help with energy and transportation issues. A notable example of a solution to lack of access to bus routes is STS’s rideshare program. (3). This program is a “Paratransit” program, which means it can supplement other transit systems like the bus routes by providing individualized rides that aren’t fixed to a route. (3). This program in Schuylkill County is for older folks, disabled folks, people eligible for medical assistance, or anyone who cannot drive a car. It goes directly door to door to any address in the county and connects those people to important places like grocery stores, doctors’ offices, and senior centers. (3). A barrier to this kind of initiative is that as of now, it does not serve everyone in the county, or the majority of the population for that matter, meaning that the average person in the county would still have to rely on a car to get to many places in the county. However, it is still a successful and sustainable solution in that it is a cheap, accessible service that betters the community, specifically the local elderly and disabled community, and creates some economic stability in doing so, as it creates jobs for rideshare drivers.
Another solution to wider transportation and accessibility issues is to reinstate high speed and long distance passenger rail. Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority (SRPRA) has the goal of returning passenger rail service in Pennsylvania to connect towns and cities such as Reading (which is just outside the county), Pottstown, Phoenixville, and Philadelphia. (6).This increases accessibility to these areas to folks that may not have a car, like people in more densely populated Philadelphia. (6). A barrier to this solution is that it takes time, effort, and land to reinstate the railroad, but communities that see the long run benefits of this type of rail have adopted it. Hopefully, Pottsville may be included in this transit system in the future. It may be considered a sustainable solution due to its eventual communal use, reducing car CO2 emissions and increasing community in those who commute on trains, as well as helping economic sustainability by increasing jobs in areas that these transit systems are brought to.
A solution for clean energy is to introduce more wind farms in the county similar to the Locust Ridge Farm. (5). Schuylkill County ranks in the top 12% of counties in the US for wind electricity generation, which all comes from the sole wind plant in the county. (5). How much greater could it be to have another wind farm to produce more clean energy? A barrier to this is the land needed for wind farms, and not every resident is pleased with the sight of windmills, which may cause push back to the initiative. In fact, there was recent pushback in 2022 to building a wind farm near military base Fort Indiantown Gap. (7). However, it is considered sustainable in that it is a renewable energy source, leading to less environmental impacts than nonrenewable power sources like coal, plus it releases less toxins. It also boosts the local economy and creates jobs to install them.
While clean energy and public transportation is not what the Skook is famous for, solutions like the Schuylkill Transportation System rideshare program, the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority, and Locust Ridge Farm are making waves toward success. Hopefully, passenger rail will extend back into the county, residents will have the proper means to get where they need to go, and more renewable energy plants like Locust Ridge Farm will pop up in the county.
ASSETS
- STS bus
- STS rideshare
- Locust Ridge Wind Farm
- Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce
- National Walkability Index
- Utility Assistance (Program helping citizens pay their electric bills)
WORKS CITED
- Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce. 2024. “Transportation”. Transportation – Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce
- Railroad Restoration Project. 2024. ”The 113 will pull passenger trains in Minersville for Community Day.” HOME | rrproject-113 (rrproject113.org)
- Schuylkill Transportation System. 2024 “Transportation Programs.” Transportation Programs – Schuylkill Transportation System (go-sts.com)
- EPA. 2021. “National Walkability Index.”National Walkability Index: Methodology and User Guide, June 2021 (epa.gov)
- Zdanov, Alex. 2024. “Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Electricity Rates & Statistics” FindEnergy. Schuylkill County, PA: Electricity Rates, Providers & More (findenergy.com)
- Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority. 2024. “Moving Forward… TOGETHER.” Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority – Reading, Pottstown, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (gosrpra.com)
- National Wind Watch. February 23, 2022. “Dispute Over Schuylkill Co. Wind Farm Exposes Fissures in Pa.’s Push to Meet Renewable Energy Goals.” Dispute over Schuylkill Co. wind farm exposes fissures in Pa.’s push to meet renewable energy goals | Wind Energy News (wind-watch.org)
