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.