State environmental board maintains permit renewals for 2 Penn Township gas wells

Gillian Graber has been hoping to avoid this moment for more than a decade.

A second state department recently approved permit renewals for two proposed Marcellus shale gas wells to be located less than a half-mile from her Trafford home.

The state Environmental Hearing Board ruled this month against nonprofit Protect PT — which nearly two years ago appealed permit renewals for unconventional natural gas wells 1H and 7H on the Penn Township- based Drakulic well pad. The Department of Environmental Protection first issued the permits for the wells in August 2022.

The decision has been a long time coming for Graber, who founded Penn Township-based Protect PT in 2014 when she and her neighbors learned that Apex Energy — acquired by CNX Resources Corp. this year for $505 million — was going to install the gas wells near their homes.

The wells, which have yet to be developed, will be located along First Street near Penn Township’s border with Trafford. The site is tucked in among housing developments, and about 3,000 people live within 1 mile of the property, according to Environmental Hearing Board documents.

“While I feel that at least my kids and the kids that are my kids’ age in our neighborhood … have benefited from the 10 years that the pad was not built, there are new children being born everyday in my community, and I want to protect those kids too,” Graber said.

Penn Township has a setback requirement of 600 feet for gas fracking sites, according to the hearing board documents.

Forbes Regional Hospital, five parks, 12 churches and seven schools fall in a 3-mile radius from the Drakulic well pad, the documents say.

The Environmental Hearing Board said, “The evidence in the record does not establish that these are unsafe distances from the Drakulic site in terms of public health.”

CNX is pleased with the board’s decision, spokesperson Brian Aiello said in a statement.

“The outcome demonstrates what was obvious from the outset, that Protect PT’s appeal was meritless,” he said. “CNX is committed to operating above and beyond industry standards in Westmoreland County and across our footprint as reflected in our Radical Transparency program, which provides real-time data and simultaneous disclosure to the DEP and the public regarding natural gas development in our communities.”

State board rules against nonprofit

The township first rejected two Apex well pad proposals in 2016. Apex sued the township in federal court for $300 million, arguing the denials were unlawful. A settlement was reached in 2017, and the township’s zoning hearing board approved special exceptions for four Apex well pads — including the Drakulic site.

Protect PT has appealed the Drakulic site’s permits on two other occasions — in 2018 and 2019. But the nonprofit withdrew the appeals in August 2021, a month after the DEP dismissed them on the grounds that the Drakulic pad permits had expired.

Apex, owner of the property at the time, reapplied for permits, which were issued in August 2022 and renewed a year later. Protect PT appealed the renewals in September 2023.

The Environmental Hearing Board — created in 1988 to review appeals from decisions made by the DEP — heard eight days worth of testimony from Protect PT and CNX Resources in January at its Downtown Pittsburgh office.

The board ruled June 3 that there was not sufficient evidence to support Protect PT’s claims that the gas wells would endanger nearby residents’ right to clean water and air.

Board adds conditions to Drakulic permit

But Protect PT did not leave the hearing empty handed.

The board imposed on CNX a series of new requirements aimed at mitigating the Drakulic well pad’s impact on nearby residents.

CNX will have to monitor air, noise and groundwater impacts; build and maintain walls to dampen the sounds of drilling and construction; mitigate light pollution; establish a 24-hour emergency hotline; and manage truck traffic to avoid congestion, particularly during school bus hours.

The DEP will be in charge of ensuring that CNX meets the requirements, which will be part of the well pad’s permits, according to the board’s document.

But Graber believes there is still more to be done.

“The (conditions) don’t outline enough of the ‘how,’” she said. “One of the conditions is air monitoring. They also have to do noise monitoring. These conditions don’t describe how that is supposed to be done…

“(The DEP) can only enforce what is written out for them to enforce, and if the regulations underlying that enforcement are poorly written, then sure enough, their enforcement of their regulations will be poorly executed.”

Protect PT will appeal the case to Commonwealth Court, Graber said Friday.

“We’re not done working and protecting the community,” she said.

Across the last decade, Protect PT has grown from a handful of neighbors huddling in each other’s living rooms to a 12-member board guiding a 235-person membership base. The organization has expanded its operation outside of the Penn Township and Trafford communities — reaching into municipalities throughout Westmoreland and Allegheny counties.

It hosts regular shale gas workshops to inform residents about drilling and has assembled an environmental science team to check for impacts to air, water and noise.