Return to the Augustine Well Pad
The latest chapter in the “Energy Capital of the East” 20-year saga is taking place in Cecil Township, Pennsylvania, about 5 miles northeast of the 1st ever Marcellus Shale well drilled in 2004.
Roadside signs around Cecil Township:
‘Named “BEST” Community In Pennsylvania to Raise a Family! and Ranked 8th In The Nation’ by Bloomberg Businessweek c.2013
TWO DECADES
20 years into the ‘shale gas revolution’ the authentic ‘Mothers of Marcellus Shale’ continue their shale gas production activities in Cecil Township, Washington County; a county in southwest Pennsylvania that a local Chamber of Commerce loves to call “The Energy Capital of the East.”
Washington County, PA unconventional wells drilled since 2004. Most dots represent multiple wells on a well pad, and the map does not show over 50 compressor stations and major gas processing facilities that have been developed in the county, over the past 20 years.
In this video, we get a birds eye view of those shale gas production activities from the air on Monday March 25, 2024, as a drilling rig has returned to the well pad, for an apparent “well modification” to 15H. Earlier this month, local residents were voicing their ongoing concerns over 24-7 hydraulic fracturing and flaring at the site.
With Pennsylvania regulations only requiring a setback distance of 500 feet from an oil and gas well to a house, this video, with its accompanying images, provide a clear view of what living just over 500 feet away (152 meters) can look like. Of course it lacks that boots on the ground ‘real feel’ of the noise and commotion that goes on all day, every day and night, until each well in the latest group is completed.
The gas producer has been completing these wells in sets of 4, with this being the 2nd set of 4, in what’s been described by some to be an ultimate total of 16. Some well pads in the county have initial plans for over 40 wells each.
Drill – Frac – Repeat
Two more well pads nearby
But the Augustine well pad is only part of the story for Cecil Township, since there’s another well pad — all set to go — that’s only about 3,230 feet away (985 meters or 0.6 miles) as well as a 3rd well pad — also in close proximity. Those in addition to existing wells, pipelines from every well pad, and gas infrastructure.
AUGUSTINE WELL PAD March 25, 2024:
Emergency Response Plan
February 20, 2024 Act 14 Notice to neighboring township
December 23, 2019 Act 14 Notice to neighboring township
UPDATES: CECIL TOWNSHIP: Public Hearing on Oil and Gas Ordinance
The Energy Age 