Consol Energy gets permission to drill at Pittsburgh International Airport

• Marie Cusick
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  Marie Cusick was the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

Consol Energy has received permission from supervisors in Findlay Township to drill for natural gas under the Pittsburgh International Airport. The unanimous approval came with nearly two dozen conditions– including noise and work hour limitations, along with air monitoring requirements.
Consol’s plans include 60 natural gas wells and six pads on about 8,800 acres at the airport, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The board also granted a limited waiver to allow temporary worker housing at the well sites.
“Our main goal will be to impose the absolutely strictest and safest conditions in the permit applications,” supervisors Chairman Thomas Gallant said.
Mr. Gallant wanted to require that Consol move a planned well pad farther from the Imperial Pointe neighborhood, as residents had requested. But neither board member Janet Craig nor member Ray Chappell seconded his motion to add that to the conditions.
“All we asked is Consol concede one little item, and they refused to do so,” said Imperial Pointe resident Allen Fiedler, one of 50 people who attended the meeting.
“I am incredibly disappointed with the ultimate decision,” resident Stacy Faulk said.
In a statement, Consol Energy president Nick DeIuliis said the airport project will be “a model for the entire nation in safely and responsibly developing our natural gas resources to drive economic growth.”

Allegheny County expects to take in $500 million from the project over the next two decades.

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