Smith delays vote on plant
BURGETTSTOWN – Smith Township supervisors continued Monday a special hearing examining the application from Energy Transfer Company for a natural gas cryogenic plant after dozens of residents showed up demanding more complete safety plans.
Residents objected to lack of documentation for emergency plans and aired complaints of potential pollution and the inability of rural roads to handle truck traffic.
The proposal for a 135-acre site off Point Pleasant Road would be next to another proposed cryogenic plant sought by MarkWest, but according to Smith Township solicitor Gary Sweat, MarkWest put its hearings regarding the site on indefinite hold because of market conditions. For ETC, supervisors are going to submit their own questions to the company, according to Sweat, before they reconvene for a third time to seek approval of their conditional use permit to build and operate a cryogenic plant.
“I have some safety and emergency issues. I haven’t seen any emergency plans. How are we going to evacuate; who does that; the egress and the school district – those questions,” Supervisor Anthony Gianfrancesco said before the 3-0 vote to postpone, “and you have one entrance, one exit going into the plant. I think you need to look into another exit. If something goes south when first responders are going in, I don’t like that.”
Some residents, like David Pankowski of Creek Road, became emotional when submitting testimony.
“Since gas operators have come, this road has been the only access and the noisy, fast truck traffic is constant. They disturb our sleep and lives on a regular basis; sometimes, the trucks are lined up to the end of the road. We do not support the addition of yet another company using this road as their haul road,” Pankowski said.
Others said they’re not anti-drilling, but concentrated industrial activity has them skeptical.
“A cryogenic plant is a large operation. A drill pad, or a compressor, we understand that, but this? How many pollutants will be set off into the air? How will my farm be affected? I have a family and livestock to take care of,” said Dan Duran, of Stone Lane, Bulger.
Paul Battista, of Johnston Road, McDonald, was the sole person to speak out in favor of moving the process along.
“I own businesses here in Slovan. I was three miles from the first Marcellus well. I go through it every day just like everyone does. I’ve learned to work with the companies and get our concerns in front of them,” Battista said, explaining he also works in the gas industry, “and if it weren’t for this industry, I wouldn’t have been able to buy up dilapidated properties in Slovan and Smith Township and improve them. Industry wants to do the right thing. This isn’t Texas.”
Yet most concerns from residents dealt with heavy truck traffic on Point Pleasant and Creek roads.
“I just moved here (to Creek Road). That road is not wide enough for two trucks. How are you going to make sure ETC takes care of the road? If a truck goes off in someone’s yard, they’re not coming back to take care of that,” said William Archer.
Sweat said something needs to be submitted into the record, examining how to improve both roads for industrial traffic. The vote to continue the hearing postponed the next meeting at least for 30 days, but no date has been set.
Lisa Graves-Marcucci, with the Environmental Integrity Project, has been coordinating with residents to get information.
“You’ve heard 30 or so questions this evening from residents that need answering. This community deserves answers, and you wouldn’t allow any other type of company to build with such woefully inadequate information,” she said.
ETC representatives said the Revolution Pipeline project, which includes the cryogenic plant, would create 3,200 interim jobs and retain 30 permanent jobs in the area.