September 13, 2022
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Philadelphia's abandoned Southwark Generating Station along the Delaware River is among the shuttered coal-fired plants that 43-year-old Michael Garrison allegedly damaged in order to steal and scrap copper.
A Bucks County man allegedly broke into shuttered, coal-fired, power plants in the Philadelphia region and stole copper wire in order to sell it at scrap yards, prosecutors said.
Michael Garrison, 43, of Croydon, began targeting the decommissioned plants for scrap metal in 2018. He allegedly broke into Titus Station in Berks County, Cromby Station in Chester County and Southwark Generating Station in Philadelphia, in addition to a facility in Baltimore, the Gould Street Generating Station.
After collecting the copper, authorities said he sold it at scrap yards in Philadelphia. Between January 2020 and August 2021, Garrison made such sales on more than 175 occasions, netting a total of $117,000, investigators said.
The thefts from these facilities caused substantial damage beyond the pilfered wiring. At the Titus Station alone, during the summer of 2021, Garrison allegedly caused more than $1.5 million in damage to the facility, authorities said.
Garrison also allegedly filed a false 2020 U.S. income tax return in which he failed to declare more than $62,000 in proceeds from scrap he sold.
"Stealing or vandalizing energy facilities – operational or not – is a federal offense which will be vigorously prosecuted by our office,” said Jacqueline C. Romero, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania and Ohio combined account for about 20% of coal-fired power plant shutdowns in the U.S. in recent years, part of a wider trend in response to climate change concerns and stricter pollution controls on wastewater, State Impact reported.
PECO's Southwark Generating Station in Philadelphia shut down in 1999. The Cromby Station in Phoenixville closed in 2011, and the Titus Station shut down in 2015. Baltimore's Gould Street Generating station closed in 2019.
Garrison is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy, destruction of an energy facility and filing a false tax return.
