An overflow crowd at Emsworth Council’s meeting Wednesday listens to borough resident Ted Colaizzi (right rear) urge officials to reject a proposal to allow drilling beneath the surface of Avonworth Community Park to extract natural gas. Photo by Connie Rankin for The Citizen

A unanimous vote by Emsworth Council Wednesday evening put an end to a firestorm -- literally, in some residents’ opinions -- that erupted one week before when the Avonworth Community Park executive board approved a lease that would allow drilling beneath park property for natural gas, part of the lucrative Marcellus Shale reservoir.

The 119-acre park, which lies along Camp Horne Road mostly in Kilbuck Township, was targeted by natural gas broker Energy US, LLC, as were many other area parcels. The park is governed by a municipal authority comprised of representatives of all five Avonworth communities.

Park board solicitor Charles Means said that executive board chairman Ed Gould, of Ben Avon Heights, received a lease on March 30 and was required to sign it by March 31 in order to preserve the opportunity to profit from any natural gas that may lie beneath the surface. The lease, however, contained a clause that allowed the park authority to withdraw within 30 days for any reason, Gould said.

Gould said that although authority rules require the consent of a minimum of four out of the five member municipalities to sell park assets, there was some debate as to whether natural gas is an asset and should be subject to the rule. The executive committee, he said, wanted the municipalities to make the decision, however.

“We didn’t invent the timeframe,” confirmed Means, who said that Gould and the authority simply preserved the issue for consideration by the communities.

“That’s what he’s supposed to do, and I think he’s done it,” Means said.

The motivating factor behind the lease is money. Means said that the authority would have received a one-time rental fee of $2,500 per acre, plus royalties on any natural gas extracted.

The solicitor clarified that the lease allowed for absolutely no surface drilling in the park, and in fact no one actually knows where the drill site would be located, as drillers can move out about a mile in any direction from the actual drill site. The lease would have allowed horizontal drilling about one mile beneath the park surface, Means said.

Ben Avon Council member Michael Bett said that the lease did not contain an ironclad prohibition against any disturbance of the park surface. It allowed drilling to go from subsurface to surface at the discretion of the executive board, and allowed for seismic testing that would involve drilling holes and setting off charges.

Gould said that any future move to surface drilling would have again required the consent of at least four of the five member communities.

Once the lease was signed, Gould began making the rounds of meetings where approval was necessary. The first stop was the Ohio Township Supervisors meeting on April 4, where Ohio Township manager John Sullivan said that Gould and Means “cold-called” to present the proposal that was not on the agenda.

The Ohio Township Supervisors approved the lease, as did the park authority executive board during its meeting last Thursday. The board vote was 3-2 to approve the lease, with yes votes from Gould, Ohio Township’s John Hartle, and Emsworth’s Paul Getz. Ben Avon’s Laurie Berie and Kilbuck representative Don Osterwise were opposed.

The matter then came before Ben Avon Heights Council, which rejected the lease at its April 12 meeting.

With one down, Emsworth became the focus for opponents that included everyone from borough residents to Marcellus Shale drilling opposition groups.

The crowd that filled council chambers spilled over into adjacent rooms and hallways as well as onto the sidewalk in front of the municipal building, as fire marshal Mike Adams declared attendance far in excess of the 38-person capacity allowed.

Council president Maria West limited comments to those from Emsworth residents with the exception of Bett, who she said had asked a week before to speak at the council meeting.

Those who spoke were unanimous in their opposition to the lease, many commenting on the dangers to the environment that have been part of drilling operations elsewhere in the state.

“It’s hard to find anything positive about this besides the money,” said Plummer Avenue resident Molly Predis.

“Money won’t replace clean air and clean water,” said another woman.

Gould drew harsh criticism from several residents.

“He overstepped his bounds by signing the contract,” said Kevin Yurkovich.

The most passionate opposition came from Emsworth Council member Alex Nalevanko.

“This lease was shotgunned past us,” he said. “I haven’t slept a day since.”

Nalevanko called on Gould to, at a minimum, step down as chairman of the executive board. “He did not do the will of the people in this community,” Nalevanko said.

He also said that he had spoken with Emsworth’s solicitor about removing Getz as the borough’s authority representative, and been told that council could not do that before the end of Getz’s fixed term. Instead he called on getz to step down voluntarily.

“Not gonna happen,” Getz replied.

“This will not be tolerated,” Nalevanko told Getz.

Getz said that he decided to vote against the lease after listening to Emsworth residents’ concerns and speaking with officials from areas where drilling already is going on at a state boroughs association conference over the weekend.

He warned residents that this area would have to deal with the realities of Marcellus Shale drilling in the near future.

“The train’s rolling down the tracks and it’s coming,” he said.

The two North Boroughs municipalities where drilling operations are most likely to be drawn because of the open acreage -- Kilbuck and Ohio townships -- are both working on ordinances that will limit where drills can be placed and protect the communities from damage to roads, water sources, etc.

Ohio Township supervisors will hold a public hearing on May 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Nature Center on Nicholson Road to receive comments on an amendment to the township’s zoning code that regulates where drilling sites and related facilities can be placed.

The proposed ordinance limits the location of such operation to commercially zoned areas that township manager John Sullivan said comprise a very, very small part of Ohio Township’s total acreage, possibly as little as 10 percent. The ordinance also would prohibit drill sites even in commercial areas if they would be placed within 1,500 feet of any structure capable of occupation.

Sullivan noted that municipalities are prohibited by law from outlawing any type of land use, no matter how undesirable, but the proposed zoning amendment will at least limit where drill sites can be located. The current zoning code allows drilling anywhere in Ohio Township, he said.

Kilbuck Township’s zoning code limits drilling to land that currently is declared a conservation area, and where the property owners are unlikely to allow drilling.