Murrysville, Plum officials deal with injection well issues

There are multiple injection well operations and appeals of operations in the communities of Plum and neighboring Murrysville.

Plum officials are appealing the decision of their own zoning hearing board, which approved a second injection well in the borough. The Sedat injection well has been in operation since late spring 2021 off Old Leechburg Road, owned by Delmont-based Penneco Environmental Solutions.

The first Sedat injection well was approved as a nonconforming use because borough officials had zoning in place for drilling activity but there was nothing specifically covering injection wells. When Penneco applied for a second injection well at the same site, it did so by characterizing it as an expansion of a nonconforming use.

“Our position is that the zoning hearing board was the wrong venue for this,” said Plum Borough Manager Michael Thomas.

“With the second well, they made the argument that this is an expansion of a nonconforming use,” he said. “The board solicitor at the time, who has since been replaced, told the board — erroneously, we believe — that they had no choice but to approve the expansion. The solicitor said it was a use by-right, but if that’s the case, there’d be no need for Penneco to go to the board in the first place. The board grants variances. It’s illogical.”

Ben Wallace, chief operating officer at Penneco, said the company is moving ahead in the permitting process while the appeal makes its way through the legal system.

“We prevailed in the Court of Common Pleas in Allegheny County,” Wallace said. “But once the EPA issues a permit, we’ll go to the DEP and through the permitting process with them, which will take about two years.”

Plum’s appeal of the zoning hearing board decision is scheduled to be heard this fall in the state’s Commonwealth Court.

Murrysville well

Just across the county line in Murrysville, planning commissioners heard a presentation earlier this year from Plum Assistant Manager David Soboslay about the borough’s experience with injection wells, and about the importance of creating an ordinance with as much local control as possible.

Murrysville officials will hold a public hearing on their proposed ordinance, which would require injection wells to be located in the business district, on parcels no less than five acres. Setback requirements are 250 feet from a property line and 750 feet from any protected structure whose owner has not signed a waiver. The setbacks largely mirror the municipality’s unconventional drilling ordinance.

Murrysville Community Development Director Jim Morrison said staff opted for the business district rather than the larger overlay zone — where unconventional drilling is permitted — because of the nature of the use itself.

“This is different from a Marcellus well, which is an industrial use for a limited period of time. This is a constant industrial use,” Morrison told council in May. “You have deliveries, day after day, of fluids to this site.”

Murrysville’s proposed ordinance requires local groundwater testing in advance of operations to establish a baseline, and additional post-drilling testing. The public hearing will be at 7 p.m. July 19 at the Murrysville municipal building, 4100 Sardis Road.