EVANS CITY — Residents on Textor Hill Road and Burr Lane said they have been dealing with “bothersome” noise from a MarkWest Energy plant.

They said it comes from neighboring Hartmann Road.

MarkWest is a natural gas gathering, processing and transportation company. Its plant is near Textor Hill Road and Burr Lane.

“I understand that we're trying find out the source, but unfortunately the residents are the ones who have to continue to listen to the problem,” Textor Hill Road resident Jeff Behr told the township supervisors Feb. 18. “The township's residents have to be looked out for.”

A cease-and-desist order was issued in January by the township to the company to stop work on storage tanks at the rail yard site. The company had not been approved for a permit for that work.

The cease-and-desist order said a permit will not be reissued until there is compliance with the township letter from last year.

In a letter to MarkWest, township manager Chris Rearick cited Babich Acoustics, which conducted sound tests last year.

“The report notes that the pipe ring tends to predominate the higher and most audible frequencies,” Rearick said. “The continued elevated dBA (decibel A-weighting) near the enclosures due to the pipe ring (noise from gas flowing through pipes) does not meet the intended purpose to reduce noise at the source.”

But Rearick said it meets the intent of reducing dBA of noise from compressors. The maximum decibel level noise can go is 60 under the township ordinance.

The letter said the township will lift the stop-work order if the township receives an agreement from the company to insulate the pipe causing the noise, a written clarification of the completion date of the cryo facility, a commitment to do a noise study within 30 days of completion of the facility and a commitment to do a long-term study by April 15.

MarkWest special projects manager Rob McHale, who attended the Feb. 18 township meeting, said MarkWest has “satisfied all the requirements that allow us to resume construction on the facility,” including the sound study.

“We are voluntarily taking efforts within the plant proper to isolate and insulate other sources of noise, including gas flowing through pipes,” McHale said.

But Behr said tests should be done in multiple spots around the plant and not just one portion.

“It's very clearly evident if you drive down Hartmann Road where the noise is heard the best,” he said.

Under an agreement with the township, MarkWest built a sound wall toward Burr Lane, built noise enclosure buildings for its compressor plants and added more buffering.

MarkWest plans to build a de-ethanizer facility according to a letter from McHale to the township. But construction of that is on hold pending approval of permits by the township, the letter states.

Noise studies of that facility also will be done within 30 days of when the building is completed.