The fourth hearing in the Murrysville Watch Committee’s substantive validity challenge to the municipal fracking ordinance is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at the municipal building, 4100 Sardis Road.

Murrysville council members voted 6-1 in 2017 to approve a fracking ordinance, which they worked on over seven years. Canonsburg drillers Huntley & Huntley soon after requested state permits to drill a 4-acre well pad and access road on 71 acres off Bollinger Road.

Committee members contend that the purpose of developing an overlay district — the designation Murrysville gave to the area where fracking is permitted — is to provide additional protections, rather than open up a residential district to what committee members consider an industrial activity.

Attorneys for Huntley & Huntley, as well those representing the municipality and landowners looking to lease their mineral rights, argued in the initial hearing that a Commonwealth Court case involving the validity of Allegheny Township’s fracking ordinance has essentially already established a precedent for the issue.

Unlike council meetings, zoning hearing board proceedings are not televised on Comcast local access Channel 19.

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