Gas Facility Looking to be a Good Neighbor
Washington
PA Observer-Reporter
9 January 2010
By Christie Campbell, Staff Writer
chriscam@observer-reporter.com
Representatives of Williams Gas, which operates a gas conditioning
facility in Mt. Pleasant Township, are planning a meeting with
residents Thursday to explain their operations.
The company is seeking a zoning amendment from the township for its
Stewart facility on Caldwell Avenue.
The open house will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Mt. Pleasant Fire
Hall in Hickory. Because of space limitations, the company is asking
that only township residents attend.
"There are still some misperceptions of what we do and what we don't
do," said Sara Delgado, senior communications specialist for Williams.
The plant was built by Atlas Energy, which in June entered into a joint
venture partnership with Williams Gas, known as Laurel Mountain
Midstream. Under the partnership, Williams owns 51 percent of the plant
and Atlas the remaining 49 percent. Williams operates the facility.
Unlike other areas where drilling into the mammoth Marcellus shale is
being conducted, natural gas extracted in Washington County tends to be
"wet" because it contains additional hydrocarbons such as butane,
ethane and propane. These chemicals must be extracted before the gas is
transmitted.
As a result, the conditioning facility, also known as a dew point
facility, chills the gas, causing the hydrocarbons to condense and turn
into liquid. What remains is then transmitted through the Natural Fuel
Pipeline System.
Jay Irwin, manager of operations and technical services for Williams,
said conditioning is a simple process.
"We're not making chemicals or changing chemicals, all we're doing is
cooling it a little bit and condensing (the gas)," he said.
Irwin said Williams has responded to neighbors' concerns about noise at
the facility by installing a 24-foot sound wall to block sound from
compressors. They also built a fence around the plant and added trees.
Complaints about odor also led Williams to install a flare to capture
and reroute emissions, even though the emissions were permitted in the
company's air permit.
"We do feel we've been responsive to input from the neighbors," said
Delgado.
Along with Irwin and Delgado, other operations staff, engineers and
members of the environmental health and safety crew will be present to
answer questions.
The dew point facility is located in an agricultural zone. The zoning
change would permit the use only in light industrial areas, or M-1
zones, located near Westland. A citizens advisory group has been to
appointed to give input on the new ordinance.