Posts Tagged ‘Larry Lansberry’

Those against Encana Oil & Gas plans ponder appeals for permits already granted.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

As Encana Oil & Gas officials await a hearing next month on zoning permits for 10 new natural gas wells in Luzerne County, gas-drilling opponents are contemplating a second appeal for permits that already have been issued to the company.

Encana recently filed applications with the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board seeking temporary-use permits and special exceptions for drilling five natural gas wells and height variances for building a gas processing facility at a site nestled between Loyalville, Hickory Tree and Meeker roads in Lake Township.

The company also applied for the same types of permits for drilling wells on two properties in Fairmount Township – two wells on a site northeast of the intersection of state routes 487 and 118, and three wells on adjoining land to the northeast.

The zoning hearing board has scheduled a hearing for 7 p.m. Aug. 3 to hear testimony on those applications.

The Lake Township site, owned by 4P Realty of Blakely, is about 600 acres. The two Fairmount Township sites consist of 13 parcels – some owned by William Kent of Benton and others owned by Jeffrey Hynich of Lake Township – spanning nearly 480 acres. They are referred to as the Red Rock/Benton Gas Consortium Lands in a lease with Encana.

Encana would move forward with drilling wells on those properties if two exploratory wells in Lake and Fairmount townships prove successful.

Drilling on the Fairmount Township property of Edward Buda is expected to begin within five to 10 days, Encana spokeswoman Wendy Wiedenbeck said.

Encana won zoning approval for drilling on a Lehman Township property owned by Russell W. Lansberry and Larry Lansberry in April but withdrew the application last week – less than a month after township residents Dr. Tom Jiunta, Brian and Jennifer Doran and Joseph Rutchauskas filed an appeal of the zoning approval in county court.

Rutchauskas said on Tuesday that attorneys for the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition are checking into the possibility of appealing the issuance of zoning permits about two weeks ago for Lake Township property owned by Amy and Paul Salansky on which Encana plans to begin drilling later this summer.

The county zoning hearing board approved the permit applications for the Salansky property in May.

Rutchauskas said he was told by a zoning official that it was too late to file an appeal on the Salansky permits because one must be filed within 30 days of the zoning hearing board’s decision.

“We’re having lawyers check into the timeframe of when the permits were approved and when they were issued. Our stance is that the 30-day timeframe is from the day the permits were issued, not from the day they were approved,” Rutchauskas said.

He said the permits could not be issued until the board received several response plans from Encana, such as a traffic management plan and an emergency response plan.

Eight permits for the Salansky property were issued on June 25 – the same day Encana submitted the plans – and two more were issued on June 28, according to zoning office records.

Rutchauskas said there’s no way zoning officials could have reviewed all the plans the same day, and the permits should not have been issued until the plans were thoroughly reviewed.

“How can you issue a permit without reading the required plans? You can put a Superman comic book in there and they wouldn’t know the difference. Do it slow, take your time, at least open them. I’ve been going through those books almost eight hours,” Rutchauskas said.

Luzerne County Planner Pat Dooley said officials are checking into how an appeal can be filed on the issuance of a zoning permit.

Dooley said he’s not aware of anyone ever appealing the issuance of a zoning permit, only the approval of a permit.

Copyright: Times Leader

Those against Encana Oil & Gas plans ponder appeals for permits already granted.

By Steve Mocarsky
Staff Writer

As Encana Oil & Gas officials await a hearing next month on zoning permits for 10 new natural gas wells in Luzerne County, gas-drilling opponents are contemplating a second appeal for permits that already have been issued to the company.

Encana recently filed applications with the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board seeking temporary-use permits and special exceptions for drilling five natural gas wells and height variances for building a gas processing facility at a site nestled between Loyalville, Hickory Tree and Meeker roads in Lake Township.

The company also applied for the same types of permits for drilling wells on two properties in Fairmount Township – two wells on a site northeast of the intersection of state routes 487 and 118, and three wells on adjoining land to the northeast.

The zoning hearing board has scheduled a hearing for 7 p.m. Aug. 3 to hear testimony on those applications.

The Lake Township site, owned by 4P Realty of Blakely, is about 600 acres. The two Fairmount Township sites consist of 13 parcels – some owned by William Kent of Benton and others owned by Jeffrey Hynich of Lake Township – spanning nearly 480 acres. They are referred to as the Red Rock/Benton Gas Consortium Lands in a lease with Encana.

Encana would move forward with drilling wells on those properties if two exploratory wells in Lake and Fairmount townships prove successful.

Drilling on the Fairmount Township property of Edward Buda is expected to begin within five to 10 days, Encana spokeswoman Wendy Wiedenbeck said.

Encana won zoning approval for drilling on a Lehman Township property owned by Russell W. Lansberry and Larry Lansberry in April but withdrew the application last week – less than a month after township residents Dr. Tom Jiunta, Brian and Jennifer Doran and Joseph Rutchauskas filed an appeal of the zoning approval in county court.

Rutchauskas said on Tuesday that attorneys for the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition are checking into the possibility of appealing the issuance of zoning permits about two weeks ago for Lake Township property owned by Amy and Paul Salansky on which Encana plans to begin drilling later this summer.

The county zoning hearing board approved the permit applications for the Salansky property in May.

Rutchauskas said he was told by a zoning official that it was too late to file an appeal on the Salansky permits because one must be filed within 30 days of the zoning hearing board’s decision.

“We’re having lawyers check into the timeframe of when the permits were approved and when they were issued. Our stance is that the 30-day timeframe is from the day the permits were issued, not from the day they were approved,” Rutchauskas said.

He said the permits could not be issued until the board received several response plans from Encana, such as a traffic management plan and an emergency response plan.

Eight permits for the Salansky property were issued on June 25 – the same day Encana submitted the plans – and two more were issued on June 28, according to zoning office records.

Rutchauskas said there’s no way zoning officials could have reviewed all the plans the same day, and the permits should not have been issued until the plans were thoroughly reviewed.

“How can you issue a permit without reading the required plans? You can put a Superman comic book in there and they wouldn’t know the difference. Do it slow, take your time, at least open them. I’ve been going through those books almost eight hours,” Rutchauskas said.

Luzerne County Planner Pat Dooley said officials are checking into how an appeal can be filed on the issuance of a zoning permit.

Dooley said he’s not aware of anyone ever appealing the issuance of a zoning permit, only the approval of a permit.

Contact the writer smocarsky@timesleader.com

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Copyright:  The Times Leader

Copyright: Times Leader

Parcels in Lake, Fairmount townships require county zoning approval.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

An energy company is seeking zoning approval to temporarily locate five personnel trailers and up to 192 water storage tanks capable of holding more than 4 million gallons on a 6-acre site in Lake Township.

IF YOU GO

The Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board will hear testimony on applications from EnCana Oil & Gas for special land uses in Lake and Fairmount townships at 7 p.m. Tuesday, in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. also wants to temporarily place a sewage holding tank and a potable water tank for each trailer at the site, all to be used during the drilling of a well to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface.

The Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board on Tuesday will hear a presentation from EnCana in connection with the company’s application for a “temporary use” and a special exception to construct a permanent gas well head facility on the 49-acre property located at 133 Soltis Road and owned by township Supervisor Amy Salansky and her husband, Paul.

EnCana also is seeking a use variance to operate a natural gas meter station on 5 acres within a 112-acre parcel in Fairmount Township, as well as a height variance to erect an associated 150-foot radio tower on the site.

The meter station site, located at the intersection of Mossville and Hartman roads on property owned by Thomas and Caroline Raskiewicz, would be used to treat and compress natural gas from another well drilling site in Fairmount Township for which EnCana has already received county zoning approval. That drilling site, located off state Route 118 between Tripp and Mossville roads, is owned by Edward Buda.

The Salansky site in Lake Township is the third in the county on which EnCana plans to begin drilling for gas this summer. Earlier this month, the company received approval from Lehman Township supervisors to drill near Peaceful Valley Road on property owned by Russell and Larry Lansberry.

The Salansky and Buda sites required county zoning board approval because neither Lake Township nor Fairmount Township has zoning regulations.

Wendy Wiedenbeck, public and community relations advisor for EnCana, said the Buda site will be the first to be drilled. The target date for drilling to begin, known in the industry as the spud date, is July 1. Crews were to begin clearing an access road on Thursday.

Wiedenbeck said the spud date for the Salansky site is expected to be about a month after drilling begins at the Buda site. It takes about a month to drill a well, and the drilling equipment will be moved from one site to the next.

Plans for the Lansberry site are still under discussion, she said.

21,000-gallon tanks

According to a narrative that EnCana included in the zoning application for the Salansky site, the company will need about 6 million gallons of water for each well completion. Completing a well requires hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which is the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand and a small amount of chemical fluid additives into the wellbore under very high pressure to fracture the shale formation and release the natural gas.

EnCana estimates about 1.2 million gallons of flowback water will return to the surface.

Fresh water for the well completions will be stored in some of the 21,000-gallon “frac water” tanks, which are about 8 feet wide, 50 feet long and 13 feet tall. Some of the steel tanks also could be used to collect flowback water, which either will be treated and reused during a future well completion or hauled away and disposed of at a permitted wastewater facility.

EnCana plans to drill one well at each site using a truck-mounted drill rig. It would be drilled vertically about 7,000 to 8,000 feet deep and then horizontally about 5,000 to 7,000 feet.

During drilling operations, sites would have a drill rig, stockpiles of drill pipe and casing, a 60-by-160-foot reserve pit with an impermeable liner for collecting cuttings and fluid, mud shakers to separate the cuttings from the fluid, generators to provide power to the drill rig and office trailers that would be equipped with personnel sleeping quarters.

Drilling activities would occur around the clock for about four weeks and require on-site supervision 24 hours a day.

Main access roads to the Salansky site include Lehman Outlet, Hoover, Sholtis, Zosh, Ides, Meeker and Slocum roads and state Route 118. EnCana will work with supervisors of Lake and Lehman townships to complete a road assessment and provide appropriate bonding for the roads.

Meter site structures

Major structures at the Raskiewicz meter site in Fairmount Township, in addition to the radio tower, include two 40-by-40-foot buildings, about 20 feet tall, that would house compressor engines, and a 15-by-35-foot meter building about 12 feet high.

Also planned is a smaller air purification building.

Two 20-foot-tall storage tanks for condensate – liquids that fall out of the gas and settle at low points in the pipeline – also will be placed there, along with various other types of storage tanks, most about 10 feet tall. There also will be a dehydration unit, mainly composed of a vertical tank about 34 feet tall.

The facility will require a 1/2 acre where a 6-inch EnCana gas line will feed into the 24-inch transcontinental pipeline that already passes through the site underground, and another 1.5 acres for placement of EnCana treating and compression equipment. The additional 3 acres is for future expansion.

Main access roads to the site are state Route 118, Mossville Road and Hartman Road.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader