Supervisors to take action against company
LEMONT FURNACE – North Union Township supervisors on Tuesday said they would take action against a Texas-based company for allegedly damaging neighboring residential property on Brittany Lane.
The company, Texas Specialty Sands, is building a facility intended to provide sand used in the hydraulic fracturing of Marcellus shale gas wells, Supervisor Curtis Matthews said.
John Coulter, who lives adjacent to the plant site, made numerous complaints about the company to the supervisors.
He said he drove through a ditch the company dug and it damaged his car; the company’s trucks have damaged the road; work at the company’s site caused runoff that flooded his neighbor’s property; and the company’s trucks use loud Jake breaks.
He also said he was concerned that the plant might be adding silica, which is a health hazard if it is inhaled, to its sand.
Matthews said he was familiar with the facility.
“Something needs to be done down there. They’re out of control. We need to do our job and do something about it,” Matthews said.
The company began setting up its plant before the supervisors could place a weight limit on the road, but the company cannot make the road impassable, he said.
He said the company does not have a storm water management plan for the site.
Coulter said a worker at the site told him the plant would eventually cover 40 acres, another access road would be built off Republic Street and three large silos for sand storage would be built.
In an unrelated matter, the supervisors didn’t support a request for a sewage module for 10-unit apartment building that the Community Action Agency of Fayette County wants to build on Youngstown Road.
Supervisors said the building would have been built adjacent to single-family homes and it doesn’t belong in a residential area.
The supervisors took no action on the request.
The property for the proposed building is located behind the former state police barracks.
Thomas Kumor, chairman of the board of supervisors, said the original plans for the building called for it to be built at a different location.
In other business, the supervisors:
n Invited residents to pick up new township maps at the municipal building and patronize the businesses that sponsored the printing cost.
n Approved a request to include the 11 acres of Robert Lee Berger’s farm that are in the township in Fayette County’s Agriculture Security area program, which provides protection from complaints about odors and noises from farming operations and preserves farmland.
n Approved a resolution requiring all traffic exiting Crawford Street to turn right on to Pittsburgh Street.