A town of less than 3,000 people has done what larger local
governments could also do:
it used zoning to deny a methane gas pipeline facility.
Jodi Weigand wrote for triblive.com today,
South Buffalo denies XTO Energy request to build natural gas compressor station
South Buffalo Supervisors on Monday denied XTO Energy’s request to
build a natural gas compressor station on the McIntyre Farm near
Ford City Road and Grandview Drive.
The vote was met with applause and a chorus of thank yous from many
of the 60 residents in attendance. Most of them spoke in opposition
to the gas processing station being located so close to their homes
in an area zoned residential.
“We’re very happy; they did the right thing,” said Craig
Chodkowski, whose Ford City Road home is less than 500 feet from
XTO’s chosen site.
He and other residents were concerned about noise and pollution from
the facility, which was proposed to have four engines used to run
the compressors located inside a building designed to muffle sound.
XTO officials could not answer Chodkowski’s most pressing question
about a blast radius if something should go wrong.
That last part sounds familiar.
In Searsmont, Maine, they didn’t stop a compressor station,
and now they’re sorry.
This Pennsylvania town isn’t scared of a lawsuit, either: Continue reading Small town denies request to build a methane compressor station →
A resident who lives next to the proposed compressor station site,
and Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, were among those seen in
this meeting and not in
previous Dougherty County
meetings.
About a year ago is when the county first learned Sabal Trail’s interest in bringing a natural gas pipeline to the county. There have been several meetings since then to get the community involved.
