Murrysville council hears proposal on gas-interconnect for fracking well
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A subsidiary of the company building the first unconventional gas well in Murrysville gave municipal council members a look Wednesday at its proposal for an interconnect site that will transfer natural gas to a nearby transmission line.
Officials from Hyperion Midstream, a subsidiary of Canonsburg-based Olympus Energy, want to build a 250-by-180-foot pad with access off Bollinger Road, which will convert material piped from the Titan well pad into pipeline-ready natural gas, according to Hyperion vice president Jeremy Burden.
“From there it’ll exit the facility and tie into the existing nearby Eastern Gas pipeline,” Burden said.
Hyperion is requesting approval for a conditional-use application as well as a site plan for the pad.
Ryan Dailey, a project manager with Civil & Environmental Consultants, said the access road would be built about 150 feet from the entrance to the Titan well pad, which was approved in early 2020. Trucks coming to the site would use the same hauling route as those approved for the fracking operation — Silvis, Hilty and Bollinger roads, Dailey said.
The 12-foot access road has four pull-off areas in the event of two-way traffic. Burden estimated the site would see 15 round-trip truck trips per day during the construction phase.
“Once the facility is complete, it would likely see one pickup truck per day, with a water truck arriving once a month to check and empty the storage tanks,” he said.
Hyperion is requesting a waiver from Murrysville’s landscaping requirements, partly due to existing vegetation that is already screening the proposed access road. The ordinance requires 144 trees and 718 shrubs; Dailey proposed 52 trees and 144 shrubs.
An attorney for Hyperion said the company is open to discussions about a fee-in-lieu or a donation to Murrysville’s parks as opposed to the waiver.
Dailey said the operation itself will not exceed the municipality’s 45-decibel noise limit.
“The sound levels are typically between 12 and 25 decibels, which is not as loud as the the ambient local sound level,” he said.
The nearest structure to the proposed pad is about 1,100 feet away, according to Dailey. The closest recreation area is the Scouting Knob off Bollinger Road, more than 2,000 feet away.
Olympus also has a well pad proposed nearby in Washington Township.
“One of the things we talked about with the planning commission is that we could have a single facility handling gas from two different sources,” Burden said. “When we’re talking about air emissions, rather than duplicating this facility, one could handle gas from both.”
He added that there are no plans to use compression at the site. Municipal administrator Jim Morrison said if that were the case in the future, Hyperion would have to file a separate application.
Council did not vote on either the conditional use or the site plan.