Nov 7, 2024 By Brad Hundt 4 min read

CECIL – After months of debate and hours of public hearings, supervisors in Cecil Township approved a revision to the community’s oil and gas ordinance Monday that increases the distance new well pads must be from homes, businesses, schools and hospitals.

According to the revised ordinance, any new well pads must now be about 2,500 feet, or a little less than a half-mile, from homes and businesses, and 5,000 feet – about a mile – from hospitals and schools. It revises an ordinance that placed well pads within 500 feet of most structures, which is the statewide standard.

Five well pads already in place in Cecil have been grandfathered in. Those well pads cover about 60% of the township. Also, the revised ordinance has a provision that would allow residents to opt out of the 2,500-foot setback and have drilling proceed on their property if they get agreement from all their neighbors within that buffer zone.

Supervisors Cindy Fisher, Tom Casciola, and Frank Egizio supported the new ordinance, and Supervisors Darlene Barni and William Ciaffoni abstained. When the revised ordinance was approved, residents at the meeting broke into sustained applause.

Fisher said that “the last month has been awful for board members.” She explained that Range Resources, the energy company that has its regional headquarters in Cecil, had inundated the township with right-to-know requests in the months leading up to the vote, which were designed to “bury us in paperwork,” Fisher said.

“They say they want to be a good neighbor, and that’s (expletive),” Fisher said. “It’s utter (expletive).”

She continued, “We have the obligation to put the health, safety and welfare of our residents above all else.”

Since the first public hearing about the ordinance in April, most residents have urged the board to put greater distances in place between well pads and their homes and other structures, citing health concerns, as well as noise, odors and the value of their property. Cecil resident Sarah Martik, who is also the executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, described the vote as “a victory 15 years in the making.”

She added, “It really shows what people who work together and persist can accomplish. Despite industry’s threats and intimidation, the board of supervisors made clear that the people, not the megacorporations who call Cecil Township home, are their first priority. We hope this sets an example for other communities to follow.”

Ted Leveque, a Cecil resident, told the board before the vote that “we know that this has been a long haul for you, and we understand the pressures you have endured. Thank you for listening.”

After the vote, Range Resources released a statement calling the revised ordinance “a stark outlier from the 50 other municipalities where Range operates, as it seeks to restrict future natural gas development within its borders.”

The statement also said, “For over 20 years, Range has been safely developing natural gas in Washington County and has worked hard to build lasting relationships in the communities we call home. Our culture pushes us to evolve our operations with the community and the environment in mind. We work closely with municipalities and residents to foster open communication, address community concerns and proactively minimize any potential impacts.”

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, contends that ordinances like the one adopted in Cecil would limit construction and development of unconventional natural gas in 99% of Washington, Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties.

In a statement, the organization said the decision “isn’t grounded in science or public safety; rather, it’s a purely political move aiming to shut down an industry critical to Pennsylvania’s economy, our nation’s energy security and, critically, our ability to continue driving environmental progress.”