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Updated 55 minutes ago
Members of Protect PT, a citizens group opposed to fracking, asked Penn-Trafford school officials to do everything in their power to ensure student safety once additional fracking wells are built in the school district.
According to the Penn-Trafford school board solicitor, the Wexford company planning to build all but one of the proposed wells has already agreed to many of the things Protect PT is requesting.
Protect PT President Gillian Graber asked the Penn-Trafford school board Monday to consider working with a third party to monitor air quality at schools near the proposed wells.
Level Green Elementary is the nearest to the wells proposed by Apex Energy. It is situated about a mile from both the Deutsch site on Saunders Station Road and the Backus site near Sedona Lane and Meadowbrook Road. It is also a little more than a mile from the Drakulic site on First Street and Numis site at Pleasant Valley and Beulah roads.
The district's other schools are two miles or more from proposed well pads.
Solicitor Christina Lane referenced the December settlement between Apex and Penn Township in which the energy company agreed to, among other things:
• Employ a third-party contractor for air monitoring during the construction, drilling and completion phases of its operations;
• Construct sound walls on all of its well pads and perform noise monitoring;
• Consult with township and school district officials regarding truck traffic and ensure trucks do not idle on any well pad.
In exchange for Apex dropping the federal lawsuit, township officials agreed to grant special exceptions for three of the proposed well pads. The other four will go back before the township's zoning hearing board.
Resident and Protect PT member Christine Snyder asked the board to work with Apex on truck traffic during school hours.
“Please be unwavering in requiring that all drilling companies be required to keep their trucks off the road when our children are in transit or at the bus stop,” Snyder said.
Penn-Trafford Superintendent Matt Harris said Apex officials had already requested busing information and plan to work with the district on limiting truck runs during pickup and drop-off times.
Protect PT members said they believe township officials violated the state's Sunshine Law in its negotiation of the settlement with Apex, Graber said.
“We will use any and all legal means necessary to protect the safety, health, and welfare of our community,” she said in a statement about the settlement on Protect PT's website.
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2862 or pvarine@tribweb.com.
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