Oct 29, 2014 4 min read

South Strabane supervisors delayed approving a Range Resources well pad amid concerns by some residents about noise coming from the Marcellus Shale drill site.

Township officials listened to three hours of testimony during Tuesday night’s conditional-use hearing about the proposed drilling operation near Kopper Kettle Road that included support from several nearby residents for the well, along with a few testy exchanges between company representatives and those opposed to it.

The supervisors delayed action on the well pad and plan to vote at their Nov. 11 workshop meeting on whether to allow the drilling operation.

The company wants to drill five wells on the 80-acre parcel, with the option of drilling five more wells from that pad in the future. If approved, grading and construction could start later this year, with drilling to begin next October.

Supervisor Jack Keisling said he received a lengthy letter from township resident Ashley Moninger, who lives on Kopper Kettle Road near the proposed site, raising concerns about drilling noise. She asked the township to require Range to build a sound barrier around its rig, although company representatives said they expect noise levels to be below the township ordinance’s standards at her property line.

Moninger, who is on vacation and did not attend the meeting, also asked for water testing prior to and after drilling commences, which Range agreed to perform through an independent company it hires. Other conditions included improving sections of Kopper Kettle Road that will be used by trucks, and monitoring the sound to ensure it does not go above township standards.

“As long as they meet those conditions, they’re allowed to perform those well operations,” supervisors Chairman Dan Piatt said. “The reason we’re here is to consider additional, reasonable requests to be placed on that well site.”

But Keisling said he was unsure what was considered “reasonable” and wanted to delay voting until township solicitor Tom Lonich could put the conditions in writing for official review. Supervisors Robert Koman and Laynee Zipko were absent from the meeting.

“I don’t think I can approve something that might be in an agreement,” Keisling said. “Is it in or is it out?”

Jim Cannon, the director of local government affairs for Range, said the company tried to alleviate concerns from residents about the drilling plans by having six employees at Tuesday night’s meeting. They addressed a variety of questions from residents and supervisors about their plans and the proposed conditions.

Township resident Judi Panasik, though, still had concerns and wanted the public hearing to remain open until next month so Moninger could ask questions.

“If it’s going to be done, I just want it to be done right,” Panasik said. “I don’t understand why you’re pushing it through here.”

She alluded to testy exchanges between Cannon and residents at the township planning commission meeting Oct. 2 in which that board recommended the well pad be rejected. Cannon noted the Range employees at Tuesday night’s meeting intended to answer questions residents felt weren’t addressed during the planning commission meeting.

“What questions do you have? You have a full staff here to answer it,” Cannon said. “Coming out of the planning commission (meeting), this is our response to it. You wanted specific information – you demanded it – that’s why they’re here.”

Most of the dozen residents who attended the hearing said they were in favor of the drilling operation, including Gaylord Plants of Vance Station Road, who produced a petition that included 20 signatures in support of it. He said he “got a little disgusted” after hearing backlash at the planning commission meeting and scoffed at potential noise complaints.

“If you want to worry about noise, I’ve got it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year … and I’ve never come to this board to complain,” Plants said about traffic along interstates 70 and 79.

Tim Trent, who also lives on Vance Station Road near the proposed drill site, also supported it and said the industry is good for local workers in search of good-paying jobs.

“People are going to gripe and moan,” Trent said. “But this is what we have to do, not just for our area, but for our country.”

This would be the second horizontal well approved in South Strabane, township Manager John Stickle said. The first was approved in 2010 near Meadow View Road, although that well has not yet been drilled, Stickle said.