EVANS CITY — Residents on Textor Hill Road and Burr Lane are mounting a petition to stop a gas plant expansion by MarkWest over non-compliance of conditions in an agreement between MarkWest and Jackson Township.

Twenty-five residents on both roads have signed the petition for the township to issue a cease-and-desist order on MarkWest’s expansion for missing deadline.

MarkWest, a natural gas processing company, is expanding its Jackson Township plant near Textor Hill Road for more capacity, two new gas compressor plants and other upgrades.

“We’ve been wrestling with this as a community for quite a while,” Jeff Behr of Textor Hill said.

Behr said he and Robert Burr have gotten 25 residents who signed the petition, seven on Textor Hill Road and 18 on Burr Lane.

In an agreement with the township in May, MarkWest was to meet conditions concerning sound dispersion.

A sound wall was scheduled to be installed along the south side of the rail yard by Sept. 30 according to the developers agreement. The minimum length of the wall is required to be 900 feet with a height of 20 to 30 feet.

Trees also will have to planted to “enhance the aesthetic appeal of the sound wall and to integrate it with its background surroundings” and provide additional sound reduction.

As of Thursday, the sound wall has not been installed.

Rob McHale, MarkWest special projects manager, said developers discovered that additional studies were required before the township could grant approval to build the wall.

“We are in frequent communication with the township and with the supporting engineers required to do the additional studies,” McHale said.

The studies were done in the time frame outlined in the agreement.

McHale said the trees have not been planted yet because MarkWest didn’t want to plant during a season of drought, saying it would be “foolhardy” to do so.

“In the developers agreement, we specified several types of trees we intend to plant,” he said. “One of those is a deciduous tree that cannot be dug and transplanted until after the leaves drop.”

McHale said trees will be transplanted to the development area once conditions are ready for planting.

MarkWest is also required to build a noise enclosure building around the “Bluestone 2” Gas Compressor Plant on its premises to reduce noise from operating equipment. The plant is located north of the rail yard and north of Textor Hill Road and Burr Lane.

The deadline to have the building up is Oct. 31, which McHale said is also when the sound wall will be completed.

The residents’ petition says, “There is an obvious disregard to the agreement requirements for construction of the sound wall and planting of trees.”

The petition also states if the noise enclosure building is not completed by Oct. 31, residents will ask that a “complete Cease and Desist order be given for all operations of the existing plant and expansion construction be halted until that is built and tested.”

McHale said MarkWest is in “frequent communication” with neighbors.

“We have gone above and beyond in many instances to accommodate our neighbors,” he said. “We continue to work jointly with them to make a positive impact on the community.”

Behr said he plans to bring the matter up at the Oct. 15 meeting of the township supervisors.

Township officials were not available for comment.