Penn Township officials hear from residents, experts on fracking plans
February 6, 2015 12:06 AMPenn Township commissioners on Thursday heard hours of comments about their plans to regulate Marcellus Shale gas drilling.
Lasting about three hours in the Penn Middle School auditorium, the meeting included about three dozen speakers, including experts such as geologists, representatives of environmental groups and gas drilling companies, and residents supporting and opposing plans for hydraulic fracturing in the township. Their remarks were limited to five-minute windows.
Critics cited research suggesting environmental and health risks for those living close to fracking operations, from possible radiation and groundwater contamination to neurological and respiratory effects, along with a decrease in property values.
“It definitely affects your quality of life,” resident Dan Begg said in an interview.
While he acknowledged that the township is proposing an outright ban on ponds to treat wastewater from fracking operations, he said that would not prevent disturbances from trucks hauling away fracking fluids, let alone spills or other drilling-related accidents.
“I don’t think it’s something that fits well in a residential community,” said Mr. Begg, who lives about a mile from where a drilling company has received state approval to begin operations, in the Level Green area of the township.
Supporters contended that the effects of fracking have undergone adequate environmental review, arguing that the township should not tighten its proposed drilling restrictions based on concerns raised by residents.
“Making the use of our land or our development rights subordinate to the desires, wishes of others is not equal treatment,” Anthony Marks, who owns about 20 acres in the township, told the commissioners.
Having signed two leases with two different drilling companies, he later said that for many township landowners, leasing their properties to drilling companies is a “huge incentive” for them to avoid handing it over to developers.
For local governments themselves, such revenue from fracking can also be significant.
Over the past few years, the township has received some $150,000 in fees paid by drilling companies for digging wells, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
Westmoreland County has received nearly $5 million in such fees over the same period.
Those fees are required under the state’s Marcellus Shale gas drilling law, Act 13, and have gone toward infrastructure improvements such as road repairs.
For their part, township leaders are finalizing a formal review of a draft ordinance that would further restrict such operations in residential and commercial areas.
“We wanted to give the people a say,” said Paul Wersing, chairman of the board of commissioners,, referring to Thursday's special meeting. But, he added, “Our decision has to be made on the rule of law, and not on speculation and assumptions.”
The township is requiring that drilling companies obtain a conditional use permit before beginning unconventional drilling operations, and officials have said none will be issued until the proposed regulations are agreed on and adopted. A township zoning board will hold public hearings on any applications for those permits.
That could come as early as April, with the possibility of commissioners scheduling a public hearing at a work session next week.
In addition to prohibiting treatment ponds, the township is proposing a ban on fracking operations within 600 feet of homes, schools and businesses on properties less than 10 acres. It also is proposing a 1,000-foot buffer around water supply intakes.
But a recently formed citizens group says that would prove “too close to too many people in our community.” The group, Protect PT, is calling for a 2,000-foot buffer around buildings.
Also speaking at the meeting were elected officials from neighboring municipalities including Trafford. which is considering developing its own ordinance to limit any drilling activity in the borough.
Some residents there are concerned about the planned drilling operation at the Level Green site, which is less than 2,000 feet from a subdivision of dozens of homes.
The drilling company Apex Energy LLC has received approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection to begin operations there and at another site, near Monroeville. The Wexford-based company also has submitted an application for a nearly 90-acre site near Delmont, near the William Penn Care Center, a senior living facility, and it is seeking several more permits, said Mark Rothenberg, its chief executive.
Also, the land acquisition arm of another drilling company, Huntley & Huntley, which is based in Monroeville, has purchased about 220 acres off Pleasant Valley Road, near Murrysville.
Bernard Goldstein, professor emeritus of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh whom Protect PT requested to speak at the meeting, said research of the effects of fracking remain inconclusive.
“We really don’t know what the health effects are,’ he said in an interview, citing New York’s ban on high-volume fracking. “They haven’t really been studied.”
As a result, Mr. Goldstein said, “There’s a reason to delay” as much as possible drilling in the township. “What’s the rush?”