Mar 24, 2015 4 min read

South Strabane officials once again delayed a vote on the township’s drilling ordinance a day after the municipal zoning board rejected an application from Columbia Midstream to build two natural gas pipeline facilities in the area.

The supervisors agreed Tuesday night to send back to the township’s planning commission the two options on the table for its long-debated oil and natural gas ordinance as the officials work to solidify the drilling rules.

“There are inconsistencies in the document,” Supervisors Dan Piatt said. “I think everyone who read it realizes that.”

Planning Commission Chairman Fred Pozzuto, whose board has been tasked for more than a year with making recommendations on how to update the ordinance, said he has various concerns about the final product and one portion regulating drilling that hasn’t been presented to the public until only recently. He said the planning commission could work over the next few weeks with two consultants hired by the township and present a “clean, scrubbed package” that is complete and ready for a final vote by the supervisors.

“There’s confusion enough without having two options,” Pozzuto said. “Once we agree with what happens, we’ll put forward one package.”

Previous debates over the past three months dealt with auxiliary facilities to drilling that include compression stations, water impoundments and processing plants, although there was also language to regulate where drilling could occur. Board Chairman Jack Keisling said he would like for the supervisors to vote on the final ordinance at their April 14 meeting, although it appeared unlikely they would be able to consider it then.

“That’s my hope, and I’d like to see that we make it better before we go,” Keisling said. “We’ll try to polish up the ordinance.”

Earlier in the meeting, it was announced an application submitted by Columbia Midstream Jan. 13 to construct a launcher/receiver facility and meter station in the township was rejected by the zoning hearing board Monday night. Board members Don Lambert and Andrew Rembert voted against the application while John Burgess was absent, multiple sources confirmed.

Max Junker, a lawyer representing Columbia Midstream, could not be reached for comment late Tuesday, and it was not know if the company would appeal the decision in court.

The company wanted to build the two auxiliary facilities on land owned by Range Resources that straddles Davis School Road near Route 19. Columbia previously pulled back on its plan to build a compressor station on that land after township officials declared their intention to ban such facilities in agriculturally zoned districts.

The drilling debate over the past year divided South Strabane with residents asking the supervisors if they had a financial stake in whether the updated oil and gas ordinance was approved as currently written.

At the end of Tuesday night’s meeting, Supervisor Laynee Zipko announced she signed a natural gas lease with Rice Energy on March 20 for her family’s 162-acre property on Berry Road. She previously had a four-year lease with Range Resources that ended in 2012, she said.

“I have been working directly with the (state) Ethics Commission through this entire process so everyone knows … that I’m not just doing things,” she said. “I want the public and board to understand where I stand.”

Zipko, who is also a member of the planning commission working on the oil and gas ordinance recommendation, regularly abstained from voting as a supervisor on the issues directly related to the ordinance. Zipko added she thinks someone who is in favor of drilling in the township should be allowed to represent the opinions of residents who share her view.

In other business, the supervisors unanimously approved to accept a road bond of $12,500 from Range Resources for a nearly milelong portion of Kopper Kettle Road that heavy trucks will use near where the company plans to drill a Marcellus Shale natural gas well. The supervisors approved that well pad in November and attached 46 conditions to the application.