Nov 12, 2024 By Brad Hundt 7 min read

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

CECIL – When Cecil Township’s board of supervisors has its monthly meetings and the subjects are standard fare like subdivision plans, pavement maintenance, liquor license transfers or hiring police officers, there are typically seats to spare in the room where they meet.

Since April, though, when supervisors have been discussing making changes to the township’s oil and gas ordinance, residents have been crowding in and even filling seats in the lobby outside the meeting room’s glass doors. Before one public hearing began, a warning was issued that those attending who could not find a space in the township lot should not park outside the Dollar General store next door.

The fervor surrounding the proposed changes to the ordinance, which has been in effect since 2011, reflects how natural gas drilling in the region still generates strong feelings. The overwhelming majority of those attending the hearings have been arguing that the board should keep surface operations by gas drillers at a minimum of 2,500 feet from homes and even farther from schools and hospitals. To be sure, though, they have been countered by attorneys and representatives of oil and gas companies who say that an ordinance that would keep drilling almost a half-mile from any dwelling would unduly throttle the industry and limit the rights of property owners to profit from their land.

Tom Casciola, a longtime supervisor in Cecil and the current chairman of its board, said at one meeting that dealing with natural gas drilling has been “a divisive and contentious issue” and “the most important issue this township has ever faced.”

When the first Washington County well was drilled in October 2004 at the farm owned by the Renz family in Mount Pleasant Township, elected officials who were used to dealing with a predictable menu of responsibilities and issues were suddenly faced with questions on how to handle zoning for an activity that was providing an infusion of revenue to landowners and communities but was also battering roads and disturbing some residents with its noise, its odor and potential health impacts.

And zoning is the primary tool local officials have to control natural gas drilling. The state’s Department of Environmental Protection regulates it through the issuance of permits, carrying out inspections, safeguarding the environment and issuing fines and suspending permits to violators.

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

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

“No one could have imagined what was coming and the size and scope of what was coming,” Smith said.

When they were initially pulling together ordinances, townships like Cecil were also provided model legislation from drillers like Range Resources which townships could use to help craft their ordinances. Smith noted that this is not uncommon practice in many industries, where those who are being regulated try to help create the regulations. It stood out for Smith, though, that the model legislation from Range Resources took up only a handful of pages. The ordinance that Smith was looking at from Fort Worth, Texas, took up many more.

The primary issue facing communities then remains the same now, according to Smith: “The proximity to residential housing, or it being in residential districts.”

Range Resources has 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 most active energy company in the region over the last two decades.

Municipalities across the commonwealth were left to fend for themselves initially, but then, in 2012, the Legislature approved Act 13, which created a one-size-fits-all set of rules for oil and gas drilling across Pennsylvania. Among other things, it allowed for setbacks of 500 feet from 200 feet, and sent impact fee money to communities to help offset the costs associated with drilling rather than an extraction tax.

“It eliminated local zoning,” Smith said. “(Local officials) had no ability 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 the zoning provisions in Act 13 usurped the rights of planning commission members, supervisors and other local lawmakers to control what amounted to an industrial activity, even if it is a temporary one. They prevailed 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 the zoning provisions of Act 13 were “an enormous overreach by the government and the gas industry.” Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Corbett, who signed Act 13 into law, said he was concerned that the ruling would send a negative message to the industry and families that depended on it.

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

A decade later, natural gas drilling remains contentious. Even as well pads have become a familiar part of the landscape in some areas, some residents have turned sharply against it, or are reluctant to have it near their homes. Cindy Fisher, a Cecil Township supervisor who was elected to the board in 2013, said that she believes attitudes have changed because “people have more of an understanding what the impact is.”

She also said she, and other officials, are seeking “a balance.”

“We know it’s something that’s needed in the country,” Fisher explained. “Energy independence is a big deal. But it truly is an industrial use. We have to be mindful of all the people living in the community.”

Smith also pointed out that the demographics of Cecil Township have changed over the last decade. Where it was once mostly rural, and had farmers who welcomed the additional revenue, 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 home, this is where we live. I want what’s best for the place I call home.”

Fayette County handles 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 “hasn’t had any kind of major issue over the last 20 years.” Almost a year ago, a proposal to place an injection well in Fayette County that would have been used to dispose of wastewater from the fracking process was withdrawn after residents voiced concerns. Earlier this year, Vicites and his fellow commissioners signed off on tighter restrictions on the development of injection wells.

“We tightened those (regulations) up considerably,” 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 offers to other local lawmakers when it comes to overseeing the natural gas industry?

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