Last week Pittsburgh City Council discussed legislation aimed at defining requirements drilling companies must take should they decide to explore the potential of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale lying below the municipal boundaries of the City proper. Gas and oil drilling would be treated as a conditional use under the City’s zoning regulations.
Companies would have to submit copies of leases from landowners and all permits to the Directors of Public Safety and Planning; to have a minimum drilling site of 15 acres; to be 1,000 feet away from residential dwellings and public buildings such as schools, churches, public utility buildings, and recreation centers; to take a baseline chemical sample; to stay off of residential streets getting to and from the drilling site; and to minimize light, dust, noise, and vibration.
Reasonable protections all, no? Residents want to enjoy the disruption and negative externalities that can come from commercial and industrial activity, and that is largely the purpose of zoning and special exceptions and conditional uses. And the City likely thinks it is doing the right thing, just like Allegheny County when it passed a smoking ban a few years back.
But just like the County found out, there is a state preemption doctrine at work that gives the PA Department of Environmental Protection the responsibility of permitting and the state’s Oil and Gas Act says that "no ordinances or enactment…shall contain provisions which impose conditions, requirements, or limitations on the same features of oil and gas well operations regulated by this act".
That could mean a swift end to the ordinance or perhaps an appeal to the courts for interpretation.
