Upper Burrell approves fourth Marcellus shale well pad

Upper Burrell supervisors on Wednesday approved the fourth Marcellus shale well in the township known as the Hephaestus well pad.

Other unconventional gas wells in the township include the Selene well pad on property along Seventh Street Road, the Calliope well off White Cloud Road and the Zeus well off Guyer Road.

Olympus Energy LLC of Canonsburg won approval from the township to drill six Marcellus shale wells at the pad, located on private property in the 400 block of Merwin Road, less than a quarter mile from its intersection with Morrow Lane.

The well pad is 630 feet or more from about 20 homes, which is farther than the state-required setback of 500 feet, company officials said.

The hearing for supervisors’ approval for the new well pad followed their regular monthly meeting Wednesday. The township’s engineer and planning commission recommended approval of the project last month.

Olympus’ proposal complied not only with setbacks but also the township’s ordinances governing unconditional land use for the well and noise thresholds during well pad construction and fracking, according to Olympus’ plan.

About 20 residents attended the hearing; no one objected to the project. Only one resident, former supervisor Dan Myers, agreed to be a party during the hearing, which allowed him to ask more questions. The energy company answered questions from the public and supervisors throughout the hearing.

Myers lives on a hill adjacent to the well pad and was concerned about noise during the development and fracking at the site.

Olympus will erect 32-foot-high sound walls around the well pad to reduce noise during construction and fracking, according to Olympus’ representatives. Tage Rosendahl of Acoustical Control of Fort Worth, Texas, conducted a sound impact assessment for the well project.

Working with the township’s requirement of a maximum of 60 and 65 decibels, Rosendahl’s analysis concluded that the sound impact during the construction, drilling and fracking at the well site would fall below 65 decibels by 10 decibels or more to the nearest 20 homes.

“When there’s a quad runner across the hill — I can hear it on my property,” Myers said. “How accurate is your model?” he asked.

Rosendahl said the accuracy of his models falls within plus or minus three decibels.

Myers said he wasn’t against fracking and was satisfied with Olympus’ presentation. Truck traffic to the site will be reduced because Olympus is contracting with the Municipal Authority of the City of New Kensington to pipe water to the site.

The project includes running gas pipelines to other Olympus Marcellus shale sites. The pipelines and buried waterline will cross Greensburg Road, Beighley Road and Logans Ferry Road, according to the township.

Construction on the well pad is scheduled for the first half of 2023, and drilling and other operations are planned for 2025.