No decision by Mt. Pleasant on wastewater tank farm
Mt. Pleasant Township supervisors listened as representatives from Range Resources provided plans for an above-ground wastewater storage facility at the site of the Stewart impoundment during a conditional-use hearing Friday.
The hearing lasted more than two hours, and supervisors did not make a final decision, saying they need time to review documents and additional information provided by Range and some residents who spoke during the meeting.
Range Resources had submitted an application to build the tank farm, capable of holding 10 million gallons of freshwater and wastewater.
Glenn Truzzi, environmental engineering manager for Range, said the storage tanks will be about 75 feet in diameter and about 35 feet high. Each glass-lined tank has the capacity to hold about 1 million gallons of water.
If approved, Range plans to start construction April 1, and the construction period is expected to last about four months. Each tank will have a metal lid affixed.
Truzzi said Range is not required by the state Department of Environmental Protection to have air monitoring at the proposed tank farm.
Initially, water would be hauled to the tank farm by trucks. During peak operation periods, Truzzi said, about 8 to 10 trucks an hour would haul water to the facility.
The majority of trucks would use an access road off state Route 50, but Truzzi said Range may use township roads in some cases.
Range plans to build a permanent underground pipeline to deliver water to the storage tanks but did not indicate when the company would begin construction on it.
Some of the water pumped through the pipeline will come from outside the township.
Currently, the Stewart impoundment holds freshwater. Range will built the storage tanks on top of the Stewart impoundment, which will be reclaimed and graded.
A security guard would be on-site 24 hours a day.
Shawn Gallagher, an attorney representing Range Resources, contended that the conditional-use application falls within the standards of the township’s oil and gas ordinance and should be approved.
Lynn Stanger, an attorney representing the township, countered the Stewart property is zoned A-1 and said she does not believe that above-ground storage facilities are identified as a conditional use on land that is zoned A-1.
Some residents also expressed concern about truck traffic, noise, odor and gases emitted from the tanks.