PA Gas Compressor Facility Causing Grief for Some Neighbors
In states where drilling is now happening, particularly Pennsylvania, there appears to be issues with some (not all) compressor stations used to pump gas from local wells to nearby processing facilities. One such station is located in Mount Pleasant Township in Washington County, PA. Mount Pleasant is the location of the very first horizontal gas well drilled in the Marcellus.
The compressor station in Mount Pleasant is operated by MarkWest Energy, a company that operates more than 100 other such facilities in the U.S. MarkWest has made application to add a fifth compressor to the facility to meet increasing demand, and some of the nearby neighbors are objecting to the noise, lights and odors that come from the facility. An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, although taking an anti-drilling tone, exposes the tensions that occur in some locations between compressor operators and the people that live close by. It also highlights the debate over where regulation of these facilities lies—with local municipalities? Or with the state?
Read the article for more details:
Pittsburg Post-Gazette (Mar 14) – Neighbors take a stand on noise, odor of gas drilling
An upstate community
of 9/11 First Responders are finding their well-being compromised at the hands
of a large gas corporation. Millenium
Pipeline plans to build a gas compressor station in their residential
neighborhood. The Minisink Gas
Compressor poses to diminish their home values and potentially cause serious
health risks. Rob Coppola, a former New
York City Fireman, and 911 first responder, will have to walk away from his
home “My home will be directly next to this gas compressor station. My family
and I will be forced to leave our home. Not to mention I have suffered a lung related
injury that was directly related to the pollutants of 9/11. I’m not going tell
my children that this thing is safe as the city told us ten years ago as we
breathed in extremely harmful toxins.”
There are approximately 150 homes within a half mile from the site of
the proposed Minisink compressor station, some just over 600 feet away.
What makes this compressor station even harder to accept is alternative
plans exists which would prevent the compressor station from being built in
Minisink. Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand
and State Senator Bonacic have all ignored their calls for help.
John Odland
Minisink Valley