Washington County Community Increases Gas Well Setbacks

Most Western Pennsylvania municipalities that have seen the rise of unconventional gas well drilling activity, or fracking, during the 20-year history of Marcellus shale development have approved ordinances that regulate where the wells can be placed, and how far they must located from neighboring structures.

Those distances are known as setbacks, and in many communities they have been set at 500 feet from a neighboring property, and longer distances from a school or hospital. The state enacted Act 13 in 2012, which regulates oil and gas development and established the impact fee that has distributed millions of dollars to counties and municipalities with drilling activity.

While local governments retained the rights to regulate where drilling is located after challenging parts of the legislation in court, Act 13 set a minimum distance for gas drilling activity of 500 feet from an adjacent home or water supply.

But in recent years, as drilling has become more prevalent near residential areas, and residents have raised concerns about possible health effects of fracking, the focus has again been on setback distances.

Supervisors in Cecil Township, Washington County, recently approved increasing its setback distances to 2,500 feet from homes and businesses and 5,000 feet from schools and hospitals. The updated ordinance also requires drillers to perform an environmental impact analysis. Residents can opt out of the setback if all neighbors agree. The change came after residents raised concerns about nearby gas drilling near their homes and recent studies that have found health effects from living near fracking activity. The township held four well-attended public hearings before voting to change the ordinance.

The 2,500-foot setback was suggested in a 2020 statewide grand jury report that found state agencies failed to protect public health in their oversight of the natural gas industry and made a number of recommendations for improvements, including increased setbacks. In addition, results of a public health study released last year by the state Department of Health and the University of Pittsburgh linked fracking activity to childhood lymphoma, increased asthma, and low birth weights.

Range Resources operates well pads in the township, and in a statement to the Observer-Reporter called the revised ordinance an “outlier” that “seeks to restrict future natural gas development.” The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, issued a statement calling the change a “purely political move aiming to shut down an industry crucial to Pennsylvania’s economy, our nation’s energy security and, critically, our ability to continue driving environmental progress.”

While the updated Cecil ordinance grandfathers the five existing well pads, which reach 60% of the township, “an MSC whitepaper analysis found a 2,500-foot setback would render ~97% of Washington County – the state’s second largest producing county – off limits to development,” the statement continued.

Range and the MSC did not indicate if they planned legal action to challenge the change, but two state legislators recently announced they intend to introduce legislation to prohibit the distribution of impact fees generated to any municipality that “unreasonably limits or prohibits future development of natural gas within the municipality.”