On August 27, 2024, the Franklin Township Zoning Board in Greene County held a meeting to hear Rice Energy/EQT representatives present their plans for expanding their operations on an existing well pad. The Cosgray well pad is near Bonar Ave and is roughly 1300 ft. from the Waynesburg Hospital. It was initially permitted for ten wells; seven wells are already drilled, with two currently producing. During the meeting, EQT asked the Board to allow it to drill five more wells, sharing that the site is designed for up to 18 wells. EQT also shared its further plans for “above ground storage” at the site. The board approved their plans, despite the township now having new ordinances that were adopted in 2022 that are more restrictive than the ones that were in place when the well pad was originally approved.
During this meeting, a resident asked, “Since the ordinances are more restrictive now, which ones do they have to follow now, by law?” This resident, along with others, expressed their concerns to the board before they approved the expansion. Some of these residents said that they are closer than 1000 ft from the well pad and even without the new wells they have experienced issues such as bright lights shining into their homes and very loud noises at all hours. Currently, the company is allowed to operate between 7am and 7pm, but those who live close say that is not followed at all, and operations are continuing later into the night. According to a resident who purchased noise meters, he was experiencing noise levels of over 70 decibels inside his home because of the operations from this well pad.
The community members present also raised concerns for how close this well pad is to the hospital. Other townships, particularly in Washington County, have adopted or considered adopting stricter setbacks. Cecil Township for instance is set to vote next month on ordinances that would restrict well pads from being any closer than 2,500 ft from protected structures (anything that a person would consider a home, business, school, or church) and 5,000 ft from schools and hospitals. Cosgray is much closer to Waynesburg Hospital than that.
Other concerns were also mentioned during this meeting on August 27th. EQT’s permitting specialist said that, for this site, they plan to use Equitrans lines and switch back and forth from transporting gas and water using the same pipes and lines. This is a new procedure of EQT, as they are capable of and plan to use the steel gas lines to transport and reuse water to the well site to frack. This presents the problem of them needing to dry out the line by a process referred to as pigging before they can reenter the gas into the line. Pigging causes emissions that are toxic to human health, which is even more concerning with how close this site is to homes and hospitals.
At the meeting, EQT employees touted that they can remotely control and manipulate their well pads from their smartphones at their offices in Canonsburg. Along with the concerns residents had about this leaving well pads vulnerable to hacking or other accidents, this also brings into question the company’s claim that they bring jobs to the area… If the work continues to get automated, then there will be a decrease in the number of jobs.
After the board approved the new wells, residents continued to express their anxiety with having EQT/Rice Energy as their neighbor. They have come to realize that these companies do not always play by the rules that are written and do not generally have their health and well-being as their central concern. They have experienced this firsthand, even before the expansion was approved.
