Apr 19, 2016 By David Singer 3 min read

Peters Township Council is faced with a choice: make special zoning districts to allow for natural gas drilling, or prepare to show evidence the municipality can’t host the industrial activity ahead of any potential legal challenge, according to Manager Michael Silvestri.

Following a public workshop Monday helmed by the chairman of the West Virginia University School of Public Health, it seems that council has exhausted its research and turned over every stone on potential options.

“I feel like I’m in ‘Groundhog Day.’ This deja vu over the same questions. We just keep going round and round, and I want off this merry-go-round. We need to act,” said Councilman James Berquist after more than a year of public hearings and workshops.

The latest proposal is to allocate special agricultural districts that prohibit future residential development, but allow simultaneous industrial and farming activity, according to Silvestri. But council is not under any specific time limit to pass an ordinance allowing those, or to prepare evidence in case of a legal challenge from an applicant or potential lessor.

The multi-district zones are proposed in three areas near Simmons Farm off Justabout Road, near Venetia Road going toward Finleyville, and near Route 88.

“The simple solution, and it wouldn’t be happy for industry, is to have no-drill areas, as well as no-drill times, ” said Dr. Michael McCawley April 18. He said regardless of ordinances, the municipality should insist on independent air monitoring.

“Pennsylvania topography doesn’t allow for proper setbacks, so real-time, independent air monitoring is the next best practice,” McCawley said.

Township solicitor John Smith pushed back on air monitoring as a “solution” to problems posed by state statutes requiring spaces for industrial activity in any township.

“I don’t know if air monitoring would make a difference. I’m not sure it’s satisfactory to say, ‘Hey, by the way, you’ve had some exposure and are at acute risk to pollutants,’ especially concerning the constitutional rights of Pennsylvanians to clean air,” Smith said, “because that approach is selecting modeling versus monitoring: Do we prepare for expected effects and try to mitigate those, or track them as they go? One doesn’t really help the other.”

Councilman David Ball said industry leaders have pushed back on municipalities hosting their own independent monitoring and that local governments should rely on the Department of Environmental Protection for air monitoring. Ball also said he was skeptical the special agricultural districts could meet specifications demanded by the Act 13 State Supreme Court case.

“I do not agree that industrial and agricultural are compatible uses … and I don’t see how that wouldn’t be special treatment like a spot-zoning arrangement,” Ball said

Silvestri said he’s confident the newest proposal could hold up under legal scrutiny, and could be the best option in lieu of prohibiting all gas-extraction practices.

“There has to be rationale behind these special zoning areas. And we’ve rezoned areas before. That’s not the issue. We just have to have a consistent rationale, that being these are limited utilities, or otherwise rural resource areas,” Silvestri said.

Silvestri said the next move is for council to authorize a public hearing on the revised special agricultural areas and then hold a vote on new ordinances.