MarkWest gets OK for processing plant in Smith Twp.

Smith Township supervisors Monday gave MarkWest permission to build a natural gas processing plant off Point Pleasant Road, despite concerns expressed by some local residents anxious about air quality in an area that’s become a nexus for natural gas-related infrastructure.
Following supervisors’ 3-0 vote to approve the Harmon Creek plant, MarkWest spokesman Rob McHale couldn’t provide a timeline for building the plant, but said “mechanical construction” of the facilities can’t begin until the state Department of Environmental Protection grants a GP-5 permit, which covers natural gas processing and compression facilities deemed minor emissions sources.
McHale said the company “is going to start earth work as soon as possible, and obviously everything hinges on when earth work is completed.”
Supervisor Anthony Gianfrancesco cited the economic impact of the project.
“We want growth in Smith Township,” he said. “And right now, they’re the big thing that’s going on.”
An environmental advocacy group has raised objections to the project at the state level.
In a letter dated Friday, the Environmental Integrity Project alleged there are “numerous technical deficiencies” in the company’s applications to DEP. It asked the agency to deny the applications until the purported problems are corrected.
Asked about the letter, McHale said, “Obviously, I think we submitted what’s required.”
EIP’s letter states MarkWest had asked DEP for an air-quality permit for two cryogenic plants and one de-ethanizer at the site, which was the same equipment township officials approved Monday. During the conditional-use process, the company told township officials the site’s full capacity could include up to four cryogenic plants and two de-ethanizers. Citing those statements, EIP claimed the company was preventing state regulators from “determining a realistic, defensible potential to emit.”
“MarkWest’s failure to accurately and fully disclose the scope of this project, and its decisions to instead present only half the planned build-out, renders the application incomplete and potentially misleading,” the letter continues.
By township ordinance, MarkWest would have to notify officials of any plans to expand its facilities at the site. The ordinance leaves it to the discretion of supervisors whether to hold a conditional-use hearing.
Among the 28 conditions supervisors attached to their approval, MarkWest also must “install and make improvements” to nearby Creek and Point Pleasant roads and make immediate repairs if those roads are damaged during construction.
The area around the planned Harmon Creek facility is home to an expanding network of facilities related to natural gas processing and distribution.
The Harmon Creek site is near the similar Revolution processing plant, which Energy Transfer Partners expects to bring online later this year, and an existing MarkWest compressor station. Late last month, periodic flaring on Sunoco’s Mariner West pipeline, related to construction on the active pipeline, drew attention from locals who said they weren’t notified beforehand. Sunoco later said it had notified the township and other agencies beforehand, but planned to expand the circle of people it would inform ahead of time during that type of activity in the future.
In its letter, EIP said the “high density of emissions sources from MarkWest facilities in this region of Washington County is extremely troublesome for local residents and it is imperative that emissions from nearby facilities are subject to aggregation wherever applicable in order to best protect nearby residents.”
Regulating air quality isn’t the township’s responsibility, but several people at the meeting asked officials about possible measures to protect air quality in the area.
“It’s a very small area with a lot of things going on,” said Kasey Duran, 29, of Bulger. “(Regulators) are not next to my home and seeing everything around it, to know this, plus this, plus this – then tell me that it’s safe and prove it to me.”