Hearing on proposed Smith cryogenic plant continued
Rob McHale shows the three parcels near Creek Road that MarkWest hopes to unite as a single 129-acre space for a natural gas compressor station at a Smith Township hearing Monday.
Rob McHale answers questions at a Smith Township compressor hearing Monday about site placement for Mary Ann Fifer, of Creek Road, where the compressor site is slated to be built.
BURGETTSTOWN – A conditional-use hearing for a natural gas cryogenic plant was continued Monday after Smith Township supervisors told MarkWest representatives to come back with a fully detailed plan of operations.
MarkWest officials are looking to join three parcels together between Creek and Point Pleasant roads for a 129-acre plot that would host the Fox Cryogenic Plant, which would separate methane, ethane, propane and other usable components of natural gas.
The items MarkWest is yet to present for supervisors are landscaping and air quality permits from the state, a sound study, insurance proofs, a safety response plan and a finalized site plan, according to solicitor Gary Sweat.
MarkWest spokesman Rob McHale said the company would have to modify Creek Road to handle heavy traffic into the site, and a water line also would have to be moved. McHale said the 12 households within 1,000 feet of the proposed site have been notified of their intent to build and operate. He told supervisors if given approval, the company expects an 18-month construction process. The cryogenic plant would produce 200 million cubic feet of gas on a typical day of production, according to McHale, and the site would use electric motors, not gas-powered engines.
The conditional-use plan for the Rover compressor station about a half-mile away was approved in October.
A few residents, like Bonnie Moore, of Point Pleasant Road, cautioned the supervisors on voting on any plan without state Department of Environmental Protection air-quality permits. A November 12 email obtained by the Observer-Reporter showing correspondence between representatives of the Environmental Integrity Project and DEP Air Quality Program supervisors showed MarkWest had not yet applied for an air-quality permit.
“I don’t know why you’re having this hearing because you should have all relevant info before you even attempt to hear anything,” Moore said.
Chris Nestor, attorney for MarkWest, said the company could submit other documents before January, when the next hearing is planned.
“That is a separate permitting process that doesn’t prohibit this board from acting on functions like grading, earth moving and site planning,” Nestor said.
Lisa Graves-Marcucci, coordinator for the Environmental Integrity Project, said the supervisors should know their ordinances and stick to them.
“You’ve seen how MarkWest is operating in other communities (like Robinson Township), where they get permits; they ask for an inch at first then they’re given a mile, with waivers and exceptions (to operating work hours). Don’t make the mistakes others have made,” Graves-Marcucci said.
“I just want to make sure this thing is safe,” said Supervisor Anthony Gianfrancesco.
“I mean, if you want to bring your kid here – we have a school about an air-mile away. I just want to see safety and response plans,” he said.
“Any risks for this facility are designed and planned for. People work on these kinds of sites every day, and they’re designed with emergency shutdowns and automatic fail-safes built in. They’re there so we’re not putting a human being in harm’s way,” McHale said.