Eddystone says it is not in talks for LNG Terminal
Eddystone is not in secret talks with any company seeking to build an LNG terminal, according to the borough manager in response to allegations raised by two environmental groups.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL) held a webinar Wednesday night (June 24, 2026) to present what they said was secret corporate documents showing that a company was actively working on securing a site in Eddystone to build a massive liquified natural gas export terminal.
The company, Penn America Energy Corp., reportedly had talks with local officials, including State Sen. John Kane and State Rep. Dave Delloso, more than a year ago, but DRN Deputy Director Tracy Carluccio said they had information that since then Penn America had filed for bankruptcy and dissolved.
She noted that another company, Eddystone Energy LLC, had been created in Delaware in May 2025 but no information was available about what it is doing, if anything, to create an LNG terminal.
Eddystone Borough Manager Marlene Richmond issued a press release in response to press inquiries confirming that in 2025 members of Borough Council met with representatives of a company exploring an LNG terminal, for informational purposes.
She said those discussions “did not constitute approval or endorsement of any future development,” and ultimately nothing ever came of them.
“You have to remember that five of the seven borough council members are new [since January],” she said, meaning that only two of the council members who might have attended the informational meetings in 2025 remain. One of the two, Council President Bill Stewart, declined to comment, referring the Clearinghouse to Richmond.
“This council is different, and I think this [Eddystone] public is different. They will not be taken advantage of. Those days are gone,” Richmond said. “The residents are proud of their working class roots, they’re proud of their borough and they’re proud of the [Penn] terminals.”
None of the required permits have ever been filed with the Federal Energy regulatory Commission or with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for an LNG terminal, according to public records requests made by DRN and CRCQL. “When or if that happens, we can have this conversation,” Richmond said.
“The borough remains committed to transparency, public engagement and protecting the interests of our residents. The borough will continue to keep the community informed as additional information becomes available,” the press release said.
Richmond said that any deal with a developer will have to benefit Eddystone. “This community will not suffer from the promises or problems of the past,” she said. Any project will have to meet the highest health and safety standards and will have to pay its fair share of borough taxes and costs, she emphasized.
As part of their evidence, Carluccio and CRCQL Chair Zulene Mayfield noted that Eddystone had approved the use of eminent domain earlier this year to authorize the acquisition of property at 1001 Industrial Highway for an extension of Second Street that they speculated was intended to facilitate a possible LNG.
In the news release, Richmond said the Second Street Extension is a separate infrastructure project in the works since 2010 to improve public safety and traffic along the Industrial Highway (Rte. 291). The project is intended to reduce tractor-trailer congestion around the Prenn Terminals and other existing industrial enterprises, she explained.
In their presentation, DRN and CRCQL showed a map of Eddystone with an overlay of what they said could be three potential sites along the river, the Penn Terminals yards, the Eddystone Generating Plant and a site with two large nonfunctioning warehouses in between.
DRN and CRCQL emphasized in their webinar presentation that Eddystone is only one square mile or 640 acres, making the entire borough too small and too densely populated to accommodate an LNG terminal that typically needs at least 1,000 acres to provide an adequate safety buffer in the event of an explosion.
LNG terminals are usually built far away from population centers but for the state of Pennsylvania and its fracking industry to profit from the export of natural gas, an LNG terminal would have to be located along the western side of the river somewhere between Marcus Hook and the Philadelphia shipping terminals.
DRN and CRCQL oppose the creation of an LNG terminal anywhere along the river in Delaware County that would add to the already substantial health burdens posed by existing polluting industries, including the country’s largest trash incinerator, and heavy vehicular traffic on I-95.
Eddystone calls itself the “Borough of Industry,” and was the home of Baldwin Locomotive Works, Scott Foam, a Remington Arms factory and the Eddystone Ammunition Corp. where 133 workers, most of them women, were killed in an explosion in 1917. It still houses part of Boeing.
Nevertheless, several years ago Eddystone residents fought so fiercely against a metal recycling plant that had been tentatively approved by Council due to noise and air pollution concerns that the plant was never built. That project was much smaller than an LNG terminal would be.
Mayfield said the environmental organizations will hold an environmental education event in Eddystone July 12 and will organize a large contingent to attend the next Eddystone Council meeting July 13.
By Jodine mayberry for the Clearinghouse
PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons – LNG Terminal Yokohama, Japan
