MIDDLESEX TWP — Those objecting to a zoning amendment to permit shale gas development in residential-agricultural districts are claiming to have received a boost from the courts after a December decision by the state Supreme Court found that the operation and installation of unconventional gas wells is “an industrial land use.”

These objectors — the Clean Air Council, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and three township residents — filed their appeal after the 2014 decision by Middlesex Township to approve a zoning amendment permitting the wells in the residential-agricultural district as requested by Rex Energy.

In the appeal, objectors argued that the wells constitute an industrial land use and, therefore, cannot be placed in this zoning district.

This month, attorney Jordan Yeager, representing the objectors, filed a letter citing the state Supreme Court's Dec. 28 decision on Snyder Bros., Inc. v. Pa. Public Utility Commission, in which it refers to the types of wells and operations permitted by the zoning amendment as an industrial land use.

“As our court has previously observed, the process of drilling and operating an unconventional gas well utilizing the fracking process — an industrial land use — has significant effects on the communities in which it occurs,” the court's decision states.

The decision goes on to cite another case, Robinson Township v. Commonwealth, in which a plurality of the court noted that communities impacted by drilling and extraction activities experience “environmental and habitability costs associated with this particular industrial use: air, water, and soil pollution; persistent noise, lighting, and heavy vehicle traffic; and the building of facilities incongruous with the surrounding landscape.”

This decision, Yeager said in the letter, is relevant to the questions raised by his clients in their appeal.

The dispute has spent years working its way through the courts, with the most recent decision filed in August 2018, permitting the latest appeal to go forward.

Rex Energy, which operated the wells, and the township have argued in past hearings that shale gas development is not an industrial use because the earth-moving, lights, noise and traffic involved are temporary.

They have also asserted that shale gas development helps to preserve agricultural areas because it precludes housing developments.

Attorney Mike Hnath, representing the township, did not return requests for comment on this latest development.