Board to hear gas proposal about plans to build Dallas Twp. metering station

DALLAS TWP. – Resident Jane Tolomello plans to attend the Dallas Township zoning hearing tonight to express her concerns about Chief Gathering LLC’s latest proposal to build a natural gas metering station near her home on Fairground Road.

“It’s going to be within feet of my home,” said Tolomello, who owns the Snooty Fox Consignment Shop in Shavertown. “It will be in my community, near my business, by where my daughter goes to school.”

Representatives from Chief Gathering will provide testimony before the three-member zoning board at 7 p.m. in the Dallas Middle School auditorium.

The company applied for special zoning exceptions for the construction of two metering facilities, two flow control buildings, a 100-foot communications tower, a 10-foot flare and an 8,000-gallon mercaptan tank on a site off of Hildebrandt Road, about one-third of a mile from the Dallas School District campus.

In a press release, Chief’s Vice President of Public Affairs Kristi Gittins said the metering facility is an important aspect of transporting the natural gas that flows into the Transco interstate pipeline used to heat homes and businesses.

She said the metering facility needs to be placed near the point of transfer from the Chief pipeline to the Transco line, and the station’s purpose is to measure the quality of the gas.

Earlier this year, Chief submitted plans to the township for the location of a proposed seven-unit compressor station on the Hildebrandt Road site. Parents flooded the Dallas Middle School auditorium in February to express their concerns, which included worries about air and noise pollution.

“It’s toxic,” said Tolomello, who said she’s joined the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition as a result of these developments in Dallas Township. “If this is approved, there could be a lot more industry to this area.”

After listening to the concerns of state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman, and state Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, the company announced plans to relocate the compressor station to a “more rural area of Dallas Township.”

“Chief made a commitment and will not build its Luzerne Compressor Station within a mile of Dallas schools,” stated Ted Wurfel, Chief’s vice president of environmental, regulatory and safety affairs.

April 4, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Board_to_hear_gas_proposal_04-03-2011.html