Murrysville council to take public comment on fracking well application

After four months of testimony from officials seeking to bring the first fracking well into Murrysville, residents will soon have a chance to give their opinions.

The public hearing for the Titan well pad, proposed by Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration — which recently announced a name change to Olympus Energy — began in mid-June, with engineers and consultants detailing their plans for a 350-by-500-foot well pad on a 71-acre property off Bollinger Road in eastern Murrysville. The site is the former Kowalski strip mine, which was last active in the 1970s.

As the hearing has been continued over several meetings, drillers outlined plans for coordinating truck traffic to the site and citizen group Protect P-T, which was granted standing to participate in the hearing, brought in testimony from a medical advocacy coordinator with the anti-fracking group Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Murrysville council’s Oct. 2 meeting will see the continuation of the hearing and the first chance for the public to comment on Huntley & Huntley’s application, which is for the conditional-use permits the company must secure for the construction and operation of a fracking well.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the Murrysville municipal building, 4100 Sardis Road.

See the full meeting agenda at Murrysville.com.