Local authorities have had to fight against fracking since its arrival

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles reflecting on 20 years of gas drilling in southwest Pennsylvania.

CECIL – When the Cecil Township Board of Supervisors holds its monthly meetings and the topics are standard like subdivision plans, roadway maintenance, liquor license transfers or hiring police officers, there usually has empty seats in the room where they meet.

However, since April, as supervisors discussed changes to the township’s oil and gas ordinance, residents gathered and even took seats in the lobby outside the glass doors of the meeting room. meeting. Before a public hearing began, a warning was issued that those in attendance who were unable to find a space in the town’s subdivision should not park in front of the nearby Dollar General store.

The enthusiasm over the proposed changes to the ordinance, in effect since 2011, reflects how there are still strong emotions surrounding natural gas drilling in the region. The overwhelming majority of hearing participants argued that the board should keep gas drillers’ surface operations at least 2,500 feet from homes and even further away from schools and hospitals. Certainly, however, they have been countered by lawyers and representatives of oil and gas companies who say an ordinance that would keep drilling nearly a half-mile from any habitation would unduly strangle the industry and limit the rights of landowners for profit. of their land.

Tom Casciola, Cecil’s longtime supervisor and current chairman of its board, said at a meeting that the management of natural gas drilling was “a contentious and controversial issue” and “the most important issue facing this municipality has ever faced.”

When Washington County’s first well was drilled in October 2004 on the farm owned by the Renz family in Mount Pleasant Township, elected officials, accustomed to dealing with a predictable menu of responsibilities and problems, suddenly found themselves faced with questions about how to manage zoning for construction projects. an activity that brought income to landowners and communities, but also damaged roads and disturbed some residents with its noise, odor and potential health impacts.

And zoning is the primary tool local officials have to control natural gas drilling. The state Department of Environmental Protection regulates it by issuing permits, conducting inspections, protecting the environment, issuing fines and suspending licenses to violators.

For officials in townships, counties and other local entities, giving the green light to natural gas drilling while satisfying reluctant or uncomfortable residents has sometimes proven to be a delicate balancing act.

John Smith, a Peters Township attorney who has served as attorney in several area townships and currently serves in that role in Peters and East Finley Townships, remembers that when energy companies began looking for places to drill in Washington County, one of the first things he did was contact officials in Texas, where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, had been happening in earnest since the 1990s.

“No one could have imagined what was going to happen, or the scale and scope of what was going to happen,” Smith said.

When initially developing ordinances, townships like Cecil also received model legislation from drillers like Range Resources that townships could use to help them develop their ordinances. Smith noted that this is a common practice in many industries, where those who are regulated try to help shape the regulations. Smith noted, however, that Range Resources’ model legislation only took a few pages. The order Smith was reviewing from Fort Worth, Texas, required much more.

The main problem facing communities remains the same today, according to Smith: “Proximity to residential housing, or whether it’s in residential neighborhoods.”

Range Resources declined to participate in this energy series. The company has its regional headquarters in the Southpointe office park in Cecil Township and has been the region’s most active energy company for the past two decades.

Municipalities across the Commonwealth were initially left to their own devices, but then in 2012 the Legislature approved Act 13, which created a set of universal rules for oil and gas drilling throughout Pennsylvania. Among other things, it allowed setbacks of 500 feet from 200 feet and sent impact fees to communities to help offset costs associated with drilling rather than an extraction tax.

“It eliminated local zoning,” Smith said. “(Local officials) didn’t have the capacity to do their job. »

Representing Cecil, Mount Pleasant, Robinson and Peters Townships in Washington County and South Fayette Township in Allegheny County, Smith filed suit, arguing that Act 13’s zoning provisions usurped the rights of planning commission members, supervisors and other local legislators to control what amounted to the project. to industrial activity, even temporary. They won their case in Commonwealth Court and the decision was upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2013.

Brian Coppola, who was a supervisor in Robinson Township when the suit was filed, said after the Supreme Court ruling that Act 13’s zoning provisions were “a huge overreach by the government and the ‘gas industry’. Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Corbett, who signed Act 13, said he was concerned the decision would send a negative message to the industry and the families who depend on it.

David Spigelmyer, who was then president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, called the decision “disappointing and (it) represents a missed opportunity to establish a standard set of rules governing development and responsible exploitation of shale gas wells. in Pennsylvania.

A decade later, natural gas drilling remains controversial. Although wells have become a familiar feature of the landscape in some areas, some residents are strongly opposed to them or are reluctant to install them near their homes. Cindy Fisher, a Cecil Township supervisor who was elected to the board in 2013, said she thinks attitudes have changed because “people have a better understanding of what the impact is.”

She also said she and other officials were seeking “balance.”

“We know this is something the country needs,” Fisher said. “Energy independence is a major issue. But this is definitely an industrial use. We must be considerate of all people living in the community.

Smith also pointed out that the demographics of Cecil Township have changed over the past decade. Where the town was once mostly rural and farmers appreciated the extra income, more subdivisions have been built in Cecil, and they are largely populated by residents who are not originally from the township and are more wary of fracking .

Fisher said: “To me this is a local issue. This is our home, this is where we live. I want what’s best for the place I call home.

Fayette County manages zoning for 30 of the 42 communities within its borders, and Commissioner Vince Vicites said that when it comes to natural gas drilling, the county “has had no major problems over the past of the last 20 years. Nearly a year ago, a proposal to install an injection well in Fayette County that would have been used to dispose of wastewater from the fracking process was withdrawn after residents raised concerns . Earlier this year, Vicites and his fellow commissioners approved tighter restrictions on injection well development.

“We have significantly strengthened these (regulations),” Vicites said.

Shane Maga was a member of the Mount Pleasant Board of Supervisors when the Renz well was drilled in 2004 and recently returned to the board. Is there any advice he gives to other local lawmakers when it comes to overseeing the natural gas industry?

“Inform yourself as best you can and educate yourself,” he said.