MIDDLESEX TWP — Five more hours of testimony in a battle by two environmental groups and some township residents to overturn a township gas drilling law centered on the testimony of property owners.

Experts already had testified at the initial hearing session, and a continuation of the hearing Monday night featured residents talking about the impact of a proposal to have nearby drilling on the Bob and Kim Geyer farm along Denny Road.

The hearing, which was held before about 150 people at the township fire hall, was the result of a challenge to an August amendment to the township zoning ordinance that determines where Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations can take place in the municipality.

The Clean Air Council and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which are environmental groups from the Philadelphia area, and four Middlesex residents want the township zoning hearing board to repeal the amendment.

The challenge has halted work on the five wells planned for the Bob and Kim Geyer farm on Denny Road. The Geyer wells have been protested by a group of Mars parents and some residents of Weatherburn Heights because of the wells’ proximity to the five Mars School District schools and the residential neighborhood.

The parents and Weatherburn residents think the wells will pose health and safety risks to the students and staff at the schools as well as the Weatherburn neighborhood.

Jordan Yeager, the attorney representing the challengers, called geophysicist Jay Parrish to testify on the effects of unconventional gas drilling on farm productivity and the underground conditions associated with drilling.

But Monday night’s hearing marked the first time local residents gave testimony.

Yeager called as a witness Mars Elementary School principal Robert Zaccari, who said his Weatherburn Heights home is 700 to 800 feet from the Geyer well pad.

Zaccari, like all the witnesses called by Yeager, said they did not expect an “industrial activity” like shale gas drilling to crop up so close to their rural homes.

Zaccari said he and his wife built their four-bedroom home as an investment, as the Middlesex area is a growing community where property values are expected to continue increasing.

“We have been there for three years, and up until several months ago, it has been terrific,” Zaccari said.

He said the constant noise and bright lights set up to develop the Geyer wells were not what he expected when he moved to Weatherburn Heights. He said based on the residential-agricultural zone and the history of the area, he thought the Geyer farm would remain farmland.

“I never would have expected it would become industrial and there would be lights and noise and trucks,” Zaccari said.

He said he also worries about safety because he has lost a home to an explosion in the past in which he lost everything but the clothes on his back.

“Had I known this was going to occur, I never would have put my wife and I in the position for that to occur again,” Zaccari said.

He testified that the construction of homes that has been ongoing in Weatherburn Heights has not been bothersome because it was expected.

Zaccari said the two types of construction are completely different because while home construction goes on during business hours on weekdays, well construction is carried on around the clock.

But cross-examination revealed that the Geyers had signed a surface lease with Rex Energy in 2009, two years before the Zaccaris bought property and had a home built in Weatherburn Heights.

Middlesex solicitor Michael Hnath asked Zaccari, and the other nearby witnesses called by Yeager, if they had checked with the township manager regarding the potential for unconventional drilling near their prospective homes.

Hnath asked if prior to buying his home, Zaccari had checked to see if any surface drilling leases had been signed in the area of Weatherburn Heights. Zaccari replied that he hadn’t.

Rex Energy attorney Kevin Colosimo asked Zaccari if he owns his gas and oil rights, to which Zaccari responded that he does, and chose not to sign a non-surface gas lease with Rex Energy.

Colosimo asked Zaccari how he heats his house and if he has a grill.

Yeager angrily objected to the line of questioning, calling it “irrelevant.”

Zoning hearing board solicitor Michael Gallagher, who presided over the hearing, asked Colosimo to move forward in his cross-examination.

Colosimo then asked Zaccari if, as an employee of the Mars School District, he was aware that school officials had requested that Rex Energy limit truck traffic to times when school buses on Route 228 would not be affected.

“I am not here as a representative of the Mars Area School District,” Zaccari replied. “I am here as a taxpayer in Middlesex Township.”

Colosimo then asked if he was aware of the request as a taxpayer, to which Yeager objected. Gallagher sustained the objection.

“I don’t like this line of questioning,” Gallagher said. “Move on.”

Colosimo asked Zaccari if he had tried to sell his home, gotten an appraisal or asked the county for a reassessment to determine whether his property value had declined as a result of the Geyer wells, or if he intended to do those things.

“Not at this particular time on this evening,” Zaccari responded.

The testimony and cross-examination of Kathleen Wagner, Buddy Hartg and David Dink, all of whom live near the Geyer farm, was similar to Zaccari’s, with Yeager questioning them on the detriments of living near a shale gas well and Hnath and Colosimo trying to refute their testimony on cross examination.

Crystal Yost, a founding member of the Mars parent group, also testified on her family’s experience living near the Reno well in Middlesex Township.

After five hours, the hearing was again continued to 4:30 p.m. Jan. 19 and 20 at the fire hall.