North Huntingdon will not permit a driller to tap into the natural gas reserves some 8,000 feet beneath a 4.5-acre piece of property owned by the township.
The North Huntingdon commissioners on Wednesday rejected, by a 5-2 vote, a proposed lease from Apex Energy LLC of Marshall for the rights to drill underneath a township parcel that is adjacent to the housing plan along Peregrine Drive.
Commissioners Jason Atwood, Fran Bevan, Eric Gass, Richard Gray and Tom Hempel opposed leasing the municipality’s land to allow the drilling, while Zachary Haigis and Ronald Zona voted for it.
C. Zane Keslar, senior lease acquisition agent for Apex Energy, declined to comment on the commissioners’ vote when contacted after the meeting.
Keslar told the commissioners last month that Apex Energy wanted a decision by June 30 on the gas lease with a primary term of five years, but the board tabled a vote. Keslar said last week, however, that deadline was no longer in effect.
Had the commissioners approved the lease with a primary term of five years, North Huntingdon would have received $6,760, or about $1,500 per acre. The township also was eligible for royalty payments once the gas wells were drilled and the natural gas sold on the commodities market, which would have netted North Huntingdon 16% of the sale price, without any deductions for drilling operations, compressing it and transporting it to market.
The commissioners voted after hearing nine residents and an advocate from Protect PT, a Penn Township-based environmental organization, asked them to reject the lease based on potential health and safety concerns and the possible negative impact on property values.
“The vast majority are vastly against this,” Gass said.
“The minimal amount of property for the gas industry, and revenue for the township, didn’t make it worth going against the overwhelming opposition by very local residents,” Gray said.
Apex Energy proposed to tap into the township property from a well pad on Herminie Road, south of the village of Herminie in Sewickley Township. The well pad is several miles from North Huntingdon’s parcel. The drilling process uses pressurized water mixed with chemicals to fracture the Marcellus shale more than a mile below the surface to release the gas trapped in the rock formation.
The use of the fracking fluid near their property could damage the environment in their neighborhood, said Joanne Garing of Peregrine Drive.
“It cuts to the core of what is important to us,” Garing said.
Lisa McCall of Peregrine Drive said she does not find Apex Energy trustworthy and “would not trust them with my health.”
“It’s just not worth the price of your vote,” McCall said.
Nathan Willis of Peregrine Drive contended that any underground drilling operation would damage their property values.
“People are not going to want to live here if we let this happen,” Willis said.
Tom Pike, environmental policy advocate for Protect PT, contended that the fracking fluid could impact well water and the surface, so opposing the lease would prevent any leakage of chemicals on the surface.
Pike, who spoke on behalf of Protect PT members living in the township, said North Huntingdon’s land is a public natural resource.
Apex Energy reserved the right to continue the lease as long as the company continued operations and there was natural gas that could be produced in “payable quantities.”
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.