Apr 5, 2017 2 min read

Mt. Pleasant Township Planning Commission on Monday recommended approving Range Resources’ plans for a well pad off Johnston Road. The four members of the commission who were present at the meeting signed off on the plans, following a roughly 15-minute discussion with representatives of the company.

Jocelyn Grecko, governmental affairs analyst for the company, presented plans for the pad, which would be on a 50-acre piece of property owned by John and Sandra Lesnick that’s zoned R-1 residentiial. The total disturbed area related to the pad would be almost 18 acres.

“On this well pad, we initially plan to drill four wells; however, we could ultimately drill up to 12 wells on this pad,” she said. “Over the next year and a half, I would say, is when our operations would take place there.”

The plans include sound walls to mitigate noise form the site Grecko said are similar to the measures in use at the Yonker pad, which supervisors approved last year.

The plans still require conditional use approval from township supervisors.

“I anticipate that we would have the same sorts of conditions apropos to this site that we would have with the previous applications,” solicitor Tom McDermott said.

Grecko said the company intends to build the well pad over the summer and perform vertical drilling in late summer. She said horizontal drilling would take place in the spring next year, and fracking would occur at the wells in fall 2018. Grecko noted the timeline “could change, depending on multiple variables.”

The company’s plans call for trucks leaving the well pad to head toward Route 50 as they travel up Hornshead Road from Johnston.

Township manager Erin Sikalik said supervisors won’t hold the hearing on the plans at their monthly meeting April 19. Instead, she plans to schedule one at the township fire hall.