Feb 3, 2015 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – A zoning hearing on plans for a water filling station on Route 188 near Jefferson for tanker trucks serving natural gas well drilling sites, postponed last week, is expected to be held later this month.

Bell’s Bridge LLP is requesting a special exception from the Jefferson-Morgan Multi-Municipal Zoning Hearing Board to develop the station on a 2.43-acre site just west of Jefferson.

The zoning board in June denied the exception. However, Bell’s Bridge appealed the decision to Greene County Court, which remanded the case back to the zoning board for a new hearing.

The hearing was to be held Jan. 27. The board, however, agreed to postpone it because members had only received the company’s new application just prior to the start of the hearing and did not have time to review the information, said Dennis Makel, the zoning board’s solicitor.

The hearing is expected to be rescheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24, he said.

The board at a hearing June 24 voted to deny the special exception after hearing concerns from nearby property owners, including Jefferson-Morgan School District, about increased truck traffic on the highway.

The station would be constructed in an area within 300 yards of Jefferson-Morgan High School and at a location at which sight distances for trucks entering and exiting the highway would be limited, they said.

Residents also claimed the station would amount to placing an industrial operation in a residential area and would alter the character of the community.

The area is zoned single-family residential. However, mineral extraction support services are permitted in that zone under the zoning ordinance with the granting of a special exception.

The company had proposed leasing the filling station exclusively to EQT.

It sought the special exception with the condition a highway entrance permit for the operation be granted by the state Department of Transportation.

An EQT representative testified at the hearing that sight distances on the road at the site would meet PennDOT requirements.

The company also indicated the station would reduce EQT truck traffic through Jefferson.

EQT is filling its water tanker trucks in Fredericktown and the trucks travel Route 188 to reach wells west of Jefferson, the representative said. The station would negate the need for those trucks having to pass through Jefferson and in front of the high school, he said.