Jan 16, 2015 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – A plan to construct a water filling station on Route 188 near Jefferson for tanker trucks serving natural gas drill sites will again be considered by the Jefferson-Morgan Multi-Municipal Zoning Hearing Board.

Bell’s Bridge LLP requested a special exception from the board in June to develop the tanker filling station on a 2.43-acre site just west of Jefferson.

The board at a hearing June 24 voted to deny the special exception after hearing concerns from nearby property owners, including Jefferson-Morgan School District, about increased truck traffic on the highway and the establishment of a tanker station in a rural residential area.

Bell’s Bridge appealed the decision to the Greene County Court. In December, Judge Farley Toothman remanded the case back to the zoning board for a new hearing.

The zoning board scheduled the hearing for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Morgan Township Municipal Building.

The company has proposed developing the filling station and leasing it exclusively to EQT under a five-year lease agreement.

The station would be capable of filling 17 trucks an hour and would operate 24 hours a day, though heavy use would be intermittent and occur only when water was needed at the company’s well sites, an EQT representative said at the hearing in June.

The area is zoned single-family residential. However, mineral extraction support services are permitted in that zone under the zoning ordinance with the granting of a special exception.

Residents who opposed the plan spoke at the hearing of safety concerns from increased truck traffic on the road as well as the establishment of the station in an area within 300 yards of Jefferson-Morgan High School.

Sight distances for trucks entering and exiting the highway from the station would be limited, they said.

Residents also claimed what the company was actually proposing was an industrial operation in a residential zone and said a tanker filling station would alter the character of the community.

Bell’s Bridge sought the special exception with the condition a highway entrance permit for the operation be granted by the state Department of Transportation. An EQT representative testified sight distances on the road at the site would meet PennDOT requirements.

The company also indicated the station would reduce EQT truck traffic through Jefferson.

EQT was filling its water tanker trucks in Fredericktown and the trucks traveled Route 188 to reach wells west of Jefferson, the representative said. The station would negate the need for those trucks having to pass through Jefferson and in front of the high school.

In his order remanding the case back to the board, Toothman noted at the time of the zoning hearing, the zoning board was without a solicitor. If it had had a solicitor, the record would likely have been different, he said.