TALE OF TWO TOWNSHIPS: A Decade of Fracking Issues in America

Southwestern Pennsylvania
In the Spring of 2011, Chesapeake Appalachia LLC was the first oil and gas producer to drill an unconventional Marcellus Shale well in Union Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Yet, while large drilling sites are multiplying in Union Township, there are still no unconventional gas wells in neighboring Peters Township.

While it’s nearly impossible to cover all the fracking issues and events, even in just these two townships, let’s take a look back at some of the major events over the past ten to twelve years.

PETERS TOWNSHIP
In 2010, Chesapeake flew a team in from the corporate office in Oklahoma, to help their local landmen push leasing negotiations along in Peters Township. They were applying a ‘full court press’ to get Peters Township council members to sign a gas lease. They wanted to lease all of the township’s public acreage, which originally amounted to 722 acres (the final lease document indicated 624.66 acres).

Proposed Dale Property Services Penn, LP lease with Peters Township:

Their lease proposal clumped township and school properties together, even though the school board would have had to vote separately on whether to lease their parcels. While there were many comments opposing that lease at Peters Township council meetings, as well as any sort of future drilling in Peters Township, the citizen groundswell never came anywhere close to the overflowing meeting rooms opposing a proposed crematorium in the township, several years later.

Chesapeake Energy, through their local leasing arm Dale Property Services Penn LP, wanted the rights to drill to the ‘center of the Earth.’ For at least one veteran council member, that particular clause was a deal breaker, since he would only consider leasing the gas rights to the Marcellus shale layer.

‘THE SIRENS SONG’
An upfront bonus payment of $1,873,980 was sitting on the table with a promise of 18% royalties, on all “oil, gas and other hydrocarbons” produced. In the end, Peters Township council voted down the lease offer, and Chesapeake’s corporate team flew back to Oklahoma.

OPPOSITION
The following year a hale and hearty band of citizens, under the banner of “Peters Township Marcellus Shale Awareness” (PTMSA) succeeded in getting a proposed Community Rights amendment to the Peters Township Home Rule Charter up for a vote on the November 2011 ballot.

Proposed Amendment to the Peters Township Charter:

Peters Township Council’s bulk mailing opposing the Charter Amendment:

PTMSA Charter Amendment Q&A:

November 8, 2011 – The ‘ban drilling drama’ in Peters Township ended its run with the close of Polls at 8:00 P.M. Unofficial results on the PETERS TOWNSHIP CHARTER AMENDMENT:

• NO 82.6% 5,337 Votes
• YES 17.4% 1,127 Votes

Peters Township joined other municipalities in fighting Pennsylvania’s onerous Act 13:

‘MAILBOX MONEY’
Hundreds of landowners in Peters Township signed gas leases between 2008 and 2016. In addition to the original leases signed with Chesapeake (mostly in 2010) there was a huge wave of new leases signed with EQT in 2015 and 2016, primarily in the southeastern corner of the township, abutting Nottingham Township. Those Peters Township properties would likely be reached from the Lutes Well Pad in Nottingham Township.

Meantime, Peters Township was looking at a new Oil & Gas Ordinance:

Peters Township’s PowerPoint for 9-16-16 Public Hearing on Unconventional Gas Drilling:

CHESAPEAKE TO EQT
As oil and gas fortunes began to decline for Chesapeake Energy in subsequent years, most of the gas leases they had signed with Peters Township landowners were ‘flipped’ to EQT, which is currently the largest gas producer in the United States, and based in Pittsburgh, Pa. In years that followed, EQT began drilling additional wells on each of two former Chesapeake well pads in Nottingham and Union Townships (Harbison and Trax) which border Peters Township on the south and east, respectively.

RANGE RESOURCES
Range Resources Appalachia LLC has done most of the drilling to the south and west of Peters Township, with ongoing drilling by Range Resources Appalachia LLC in North Strabane Township (to the southwest) and Cecil Township (to the west).

PETERS TOWNSHIP LEASES GAS RIGHTS
Peters Township council signed two non-surface leases (EQT in 2017 / Range Resources in 2018) that allow well laterals to be drilled horizontally beneath the township.

ZONING CHANGE
Shortly before signing those leases, Peters Township changed from using a Mineral Extraction Overlay District, to zoning that restricts surface drilling to only parcels that are zoned “Industrial.” Those are primarily in the northwest corner of Peters Township at the present time.

Peters Township lease with EQT Production Company:
Signing bonus of $4,750.00 per acre, 18% Royalties

Range Resources – Appalachia LLC building in the Southpointe Business Park near Canonsburg, PA

Peters Township lease with Range Resources – Appalachia, LLC:
Signing bonus of $4,750.00 per acre, 18% Royalties

BACK TO 2013
The Union Township drilling by Chesapeake in 2011 was followed by the Bunola 3D seismic survey of multiple southwestern Pennsylvania townships and counties. “Thumper trucks” and explosive charges were used to survey a large area charted for future shale gas production, using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking.’

THUMPER TRUCKS
Seismic testing trucks working in unison along a frigid road near the Peters Township – Union Township border on January 27, 2014. Trucks move forward short distances, lower their plates onto the road surface, and create a ‘wind-up’ whirring sound, then release vibrations into the ground that are monitored by multiple devices placed along the road. Blasting is often used in conjunction with the “thumper trucks” as outlined in the PA DEP permit below.

BLASTING ACTIVITY PERMIT for “Bunola 3D”
PA DEP Bureau of Mining and Reclamation:

What is seismic testing? Read more here.

Photos above: Seismic testing activities on December 5, 2011 in Hopewell Township, Washington County, PA

EQT’s informational pages on Seismic Testing:

CURRENT ACTIVITY
During 2022, EQT excavated the SARAH well pad along El Rama Road, between Finleyville and El Rama. It’s just one of several existing or future well pads in an area straddling the Monongahela River, about 13 miles SSE of Pittsburgh, Pa.

‘SHALE REFUGEES’
Following public meetings held by township residents, concerned about development of the Sarah Well Pad, at least one family decided to move, regretfully putting their recently purchased ‘Shangri-La’ up for sale, fearful of living close to drilling and fracking.

Flyer promoting a March 9, 2022 meeting:

Sarah 9H Well Permitting
Neighboring townships were notified with Act 14 Notices, and well permitting proceeded through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Initial plans have called for a total of 44 wells to be developed on the Sarah Well Pad in stages.

Project Information for the Sarah Well Site:

Sarah 9H Well Location Plat:

Plotting the northwest path of the Sarah 9H horizontal well bore
Like most Marcellus Shale unconventional gas wells, the horizontal (lateral) leg extends in a NW/SE direction. Unlike early Marcellus Shale well laterals that often extended less than 1-mile, the Sarah 9H lateral is projected to extend 3.79 miles (20,000 feet / 6,096 meters) at a depth of 1.43 miles (7,545 feet / 2,300 meters) with a Total Mineral Tract of 1,365.09 acres. The well site’s project area covers 26.03 acres.

MARCELLUS AIR photos of the SARAH WELL PAD on November 23, 2022:

Moving this shale gas to market
Approximately three-quarters of a mile from the Sarah well pad is the McIntosh Compressor Station. Ever since the McIntosh was built and began operations next to the old, existing Hartson Compressor Station, neighbors have been complaining about various issues.

A smaller EQT well pad in neighboring Nottingham Township:

A new EQT well pad in Union Township ready for future drilling:

Act 14 Notice sent to neighboring Peters Township on Caton 7H well:

BACK TO EARLIER DRILLING IN UNION TOWNSHIP:
Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC drilled Trax Farms 3H, the first unconventional well in Union Township. The gas lease was later ‘flipped’ to EQT, who drilled additional wells:

While the FracFocus website was created to share the makeup of frac fluids, unfortunately, a large percentage of the ingredients can still be hidden under a “Proprietary” classification.

Chesapeake fracking at Trax Farms:

FLOWBACK AND PRODUCED WATER
With somewhere around one-third of those millions of gallons of frac fluids coming back up from the deep, black, salty, radioactive shale, where does it all go? Some gets trucked all the way to injection wells in Ohio. Some gets spread on gravel roads and around well sites in Pennsylvania. Some is held in massive, earthen impoundment dams and gets used to frac more wells.

Believe it or not
Thirteen years ago, this toxic wastewater was actually going into the source of our drinking water, the Monongahela River, with minimal treatment. Keep in mind that Radium 226, often present in this flowback, is water soluble and has a half-life of 1600 years. Radioactive drilling waste is still going into local garbage landfills, and just like those sewage plants, these landfills were never designed to handle this industrial grade, radioactive waste. Read more in Justin Nobel’s Rolling Stone story “America’s Radioactive Secret” and update “The Oil and Gas Industry Produces Radioactive Waste. Lots of It.“

Back to Union Township –
EQT Well Location Plat indicates 12 wells:

EQT drilling more wells in 2014

Coal notice sent to EQT by Consol Energy regarding the Montour No. 10 Mine:

Oil and Gas Lease – CNX and EQT in April 2014:
16% Royalties with NO DEDUCTIONS

EQT fracking Trax Farms wells in 2014:

Neighbors living nearby on Cardox Road, were offered a total of $50,000 to sign these agreements:

THE LATEST CHAPTER: Shale Gas Ethane cracked into Plastic
October 21, 2022 look at Shell’s “Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex” (aka ‘Cracker Plant’) north of Pittsburgh in Monaca, PA:

Will a second cracker plant be built further down the Ohio River in Belmont County, Ohio?

BLOG: Second Cracker Plant in Ohio River Valley?