May 28, 2015 3 min read

After applying for a second compressor station in Robinson Township, MarkWest representatives are denying plans to build a processing plant there.

“We have no intention of building a processing plant in Robinson Township,” said Robert E. McHale, MarkWest manager of special projects. “We have every intention of building two compressor stations on property we own in Robinson Township.”

The company applied for a second compressor station May 22, less than two weeks after their first compressor station was approved by Robinson Township supervisors.

“These facilities are required to support the growth of natural gas development in the region,” McHale said in an email.

Supervisors Rodger Kendall and Stephen Duran voted to approve the first compressor station at the May 11 township meeting, in which three people were ordered to leave for speaking out of turn. Supervisor Mark Brositz voted against the motion for MarkWest’s subdivision and land-development application to build an electric-powered compressor station between Route 980 and Quicksilver Road.

After the second application, Brositz questioned the company’s transparency.

“It certainly seems they weren’t being very forthcoming in that last meeting,” Brositz said.

Confusion over a reported renaming and the number of proposed facilities surround the project.

In the application to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the project is referred to as both “Cibus Ranch” and “Imperial.”

Brositz said when he asked why there were two names, he was told by MarkWest representatives the project was renamed during filing. He said he was never given an answer when he asked if two compressor stations would be built.

“MarkWest refused to answer and now see what’s happened,” Brositz said.

Lisa Graves-Marcucci, who attended the May 11 meeting as a representative of the Environmental Integrity Project, was one of the three ordered to leave.

According to Graves-Marcucci, her review of DEP paperwork filed by MarkWest reveals no mention of a name change.

“There continues to be a lot of confusion,” she said. “We still don’t know what they voted on. This is not pro- or anti-drilling, just a transparency issue. I’m worried the public isn’t being fully informed.”

McHale said the company has been clear with township officials from the onset.

“We always intended to have two compressor stations,” McHale said. “We’ve never made a secret of that. We have been fully transparent in our intentions. The way we operate is to be transparent.”

Compressor stations are a permitted use in the interchange business development zone where the first facility will be constructed.

McHale said the second compressor station is located on a separate parcel to the west of the original station, on the same side of Quicksilver Road. While some of that land is zoned interchange business development, a large portion is zoned commercial.

Like the first station, the second will be electric-powered.

“We only have intentions of building these two compressor stations in Robinson Township,” McHale said.

According to Kendall, MarkWest will have to go through the application process again before the motion is presented to supervisors.