Review of shale gas well at steel mill site suspended
The state Department of Environmental Protection has suspended its review of a proposal to drill a deep shale gas well on U.S. Steel Corp.’s Edgar Thomson steel mill property along the Monongahela River in East Pittsburgh and North Versailles.
Consideration of the required permits was halted by the DEP because Merrion Oil & Gas has failed to obtain local zoning permits for the project that was first proposed in 2017.
The well project, which the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker intended to use to provide a dedicated, low-cost supply of natural gas to its Mon Valley Works mills, was opposed by some residents and environmental organizations because of safety and health concerns.
According to the DEP permit applications, the project would disturb 13.4 acres for construction of an unconventional gas well pad, two access roads, five freshwater storage tanks, a 2,770-foot natural gas pipeline and a 2,990-foot freshwater pipeline.
Merrion, a company headquartered in New Mexico, was informed of the DEP’s decision to suspend the permit review process in a Dec. 8 letter from Scott Perry, DEP deputy secretary for the Office of Oil and Gas Management.
In the letter, Mr. Perry wrote the department was suspending its review “unless and until Merrion obtains zoning approval from the appropriate governmental entity to construct and operate the facility.”
The company’s plans show it could drill up to 18 wells on one pad within the 145-year-old steel mill’s industrial footprint. Each well would have been approximately 6,700 feet deep with horizontal laterals in the Marcellus shale formation extending out almost 2 miles under residential areas of Mon Valley communities.
Merrion has oil and gas operations in 17 states but has never drilled a horizontal shale gas well, often referred to as an “unconventional well,” in any of them and has drilled no other wells in Pennsylvania.
Opponents of the drilling project hailed the DEP decision. Megan McDonough, state director of Food & Water Watch Pennsylvania, said residents of nearby communities have fought a long battle to stop the project.
“We know all too well the dangers of fracking, and folks in the Mon Valley are sick and tired of sacrificing the health and safety of their families for the sake of fossil fuel companies,” Ms. McDonough said. “Community leaders have made sure that
local political leaders are working to protect their constituents from an outrageously dangerous plan to drill a new fracking well in a densely populated community.”
Sheurged the state’s political leadership — including Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, former mayor of Braddock and an early proponent of the shale gas development — to “speak up against an out-ofstate drilling company that keeps trying to bully a small town in court.”
Edith Abeyta, of North Braddock Residents For Our Future, attributed the DEP’s decision to public pressure. “These historic victories should show Merrion that they can keep trying, but we will keep winning,” she said.
But Ryan Davis, Merrion’s project manager, said the company still wants to develop the site and is continuing to work on resolving the zoning problems.
“The DEP action does not end the project altogether,” he said. “We were informed of it earlier this week and are still evaluating what that means.”
The zoning issues the project has encountered are longstanding.
The East Pittsburgh Borough Zoning Board granted a conditional use permit to Merrion in December 2017.
A little more than two years later, in January 2020, the borough council revoked that permit because of lack of development activity at the site bounded by the Monongahela River and Turtle Creek. Merrion appealed that decision to the zoning board, which held hearings in June but denied the appeal in October.
Mr. Davis said Merrion appealed the zoning board decision to the Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court on Nov. 24. A hearing date has not been set.
He said the zoning problems have delayed the well drilling project by eight months so far.
In addition to the conditional use zoning permit, Merrion needs three permits from the DEP — for erosion and sediment control, a utility line stream crossing and for drilling and operating an unconventional well. The company may also need to get an air quality control permit from the Allegheny County Health Department.