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Peters Township Council makes plans for additional ordinances

2 min read

McMURRAY – Peters Township Council may be faced with adopting additional ordinances on stormwater management to come into compliance with state and federal regulations.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency require urbanized areas, like Peters, to obtain a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permit, or MS4, in order to discharge its storm sewer system to surface waters.

The township, which first received the permit in 2003, applied for reapproval of the permit in March 2013. Council recently heard back from the state and may be required to do more stringent monitoring of streams in the township, which, in turn, may lead to the adoption of additional ordinances.

Mark Zemaitis, the township’s director of engineering, said during Monday’s council meeting that the township has until the end of the year to come up with a plan.

“It may involve putting some limits on property owners as well,” said township manager Michael Silvestri.

In other business, Silvestri told council that the recently formed township committee that will examine how to best structure new ordinances that will permit drilling for natural gas in the township needs to start the planning process.

The committee includes council members David Ball, Robert Lewis and Monica Merrell, and Tom Carey and Rocco Mangrino of the planning commission.

Because of changes in state law, Peters must eliminate its Mineral Extraction Overlay District, which would have allowed natural gas drilling in 15 areas of the township, all of which are zoned residential. The township needs to find a way that it can allow drilling to take place, but meet state law, especially when it comes to protecting the environment.

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