On the heels of the massive ID Logistics XPH8 warehouse on Route 940 east of White Haven, Kidder Township has announced the approval of a land development plan for a second mega-warehouse along Route 940 in Kidder Township. The site has already been cleared on forested land along Route 940, a quarter mile east of Moseywood Road.

The site is roughly three-quarters of a mile from the Moseywood Wetland, which is listed as a Top Priority Natural Area with Species of Concern in Carbon County. The 1,000-acre wetland is home to significant populations of Pennsylvania-endangered plants and invertebrate species of concern documented during field studies conducted by trained scientists for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in 2006.

Developers might argue that the buffer zone is wide enough to protect the wetland from negative impacts resulting from warehouse development, but that is an erroneous assumption. We now know that wetlands, ponds, and other aquatic resources that appear on the surface of the land are often connected to one another via underground channels, forming vast complexes of wetlands beneath the surface. Pollutants such as vehicular fluids seeping into the ground during the construction and operation of warehouse facilities can quickly migrate via these sub-surface channels to contaminate an entire watershed.

Kidder Township lies within the Lehigh River Watershed. Ironically, a leading environmental organization announced earlier this year that the Lehigh River has been listed among our nation’s most endangered waterways. (Times News, April 18, 2023). The biggest threat facing the river today, according to this report, is poorly planned development of warehouse and distribution centers that can impact the river’s water, fish and wildlife habitat. Apparently Kidder Township is not listening.

Juliet Perrin

Albrightsville