Jun 15, 2015 4 min read

MCDONALD – Robinson Township, once at the forefront of restricting gas drilling, is again in the thick of another Marcellus Shale project.

The township’s planning commission tabled a vote on a second MarkWest natural gas electric-powered compressor station during a meeting Monday, but not because of ongoing confusion over the name of the project. After hearing from the township’s engineer, chairman Anthony Orlandini said he wanted the company to have a concrete plan to address a possible consolidation of three of their lots to comply with setback rules. The township requires certain property-line distance criteria.

Robinson was one of four area municipalities to challenge the constitutionality of Act 13, the state’s law governing oil and gas drilling, which previously allowed gas development in all zoning districts. In 2013, the commonwealth’s Supreme Court threw out sections of the law, allowing municipalities the ability to create zoning rules and noise restrictions for drillers.

The proposed Imperial Station, to be built on MarkWest land between Route 980 and Quicksilver Road, will be located west of the first approved Cybus Ranch station. It will be comprised of eight compressor stations on a 15.8-acre pad, with a total of 45 acres involved.

Most of the land is zoned commercial, requiring a conditional-use variation permit from the township. If the planning commission approves MarkWest’s request, the application would move to the township board of supervisors, who would hold at least one public hearing.

MarkWest filed an application early this year to have its 252 acres in the township rezoned as industrial. However, they told the board of supervisors in March they were no longer seeking to rezone, and the application has since been withdrawn.

Part of that land, future site of Cybus Ranch, is zoned interchange business development, on which compressor stations are a permitted use.

The board of supervisors was divided on the issue. Supervisors Rodger Kendall and Stephen Duran voted in favor of the first compressor station while Mark Brositz voted against.

Brositz said he wants clarification on the first approval. He and some township residents claimed MarkWest is not being transparent in their intentions and there were conflicting coordinates, number of facilities and identification numbers in the first plan.

Planning commission member Sandy Ulrich said she is still not satisfied with MarkWest’s initial proposal.

“I just think it needs to be made clearer on these applications,” Ulrich said.

Robert E. McHale, MarkWest manager of special projects, began his presentation by apologizing for the confusion. He said the project was renamed early in development and paperwork filed with the state DEP referred to the land as Cybus ranch, not the project, as the land was owned by Cybus.

“We did our very best to clear up the name confusion,” McHale said.

Orlandini and commission members Mary Donaldson and David Barkhurst said they were satisfied with MarkWest’s explanation.

The compressor stations will serve two different producers, Range Resources and CNX, a natural gas division of Consol Energy. The stations will provide gathering for drilling on 9,000 acres of Allegheny County property near Pittsburgh International Airport.

“MarkWest builds and operates facilities based on customer needs,” said McHale in an email Wednesday. “The resource being developed by our customers is not confined to geographic boundaries, as they have to move their product from the wellhead to consumers and other end users. MarkWest’s role in this process supports the local economy through job creation and the utilization of local businesses to support our operations. This activity generates a number of benefits for surface and mineral estate owners as well as the state and local governments by creating new revenue streams.”

After receiving the planning commision’s recommendation, McHale said MarkWest will continue to explore their options.