EQT representatives explain Middlesex drilling survey request letters
MIDDLESEX TWP — Representatives from natural gas company EQT were present at a supervisors work session on Wednesday, Oct. 1 to clarify a situation in which some township residents received letters from the company regarding potential drilling on their property.
“They had sent out hundreds of notification letters or survey request letters, asking general questions of property owners in Middlesex,” said township manager Jeffrey Winkle. “They confused the landowners in Middlesex because there’s no EQT here.”
While EQT does not operate any well pads in Middlesex Township itself, the letters that were sent were in relation to two well pads the company operates in West Deer Township, Allegheny County. The company recently purchased both of them from Olympus Energy.
Most of the discussion at Wednesday’s meeting centered around the Tyche Well Pad, located in Gibsonia. According to permitting manager John Zavatchan, the company planned to drill 6,200 feet beneath the surface of the Tyche well site, and then horizontally by 5 miles in all directions.
“With the well site being 2 miles away from the township line in West Deer Township, that’s how folks in Middlesex Township would be affected,” Zavatchan said.
Zavatchan also assured residents that no actual surface disturbance would take place in the township.
According to Winkle, EQT does not currently have any lease agreements with property owners in Middlesex Township to allow them to drill underneath anyone’s property there.
“They haven’t leased anybody in Middlesex. All their leases stop at the county line,” Winkle said. “They sent letters requesting information from a lot of residents, but they don’t have any leases, and that’s what confused people.”
Township supervisors also relayed concerns from residents who said at the Sept. 17 meeting that they noticed surveyors from EQT’s partner surveying company accessing their property without permission.
“The trespassing on private property really did upset me. Those fellows had no right to do that,” said township Supervisor Michael Spreng during Wednesday’s meeting. “This is clearly the wrong way to handle this situation.”
Zavatchan told township supervisors that the company didn’t usually receive this level of pushback from a municipality adjacent to one of its horizontal drilling operations.
“I’ll be honest with you, in my experience, I’ve been at EQT for 16 years, and we’ve never had an adjacent township have a concern with our survey notifications,” Zavatchan said.
