Elizabeth Township gave an EQT-operated natural gas project final approval Monday, clearing the way for continued extraction from a well site less than a half-mile from the Elizabeth Forward High School, despite resident objections over health and development implications.
Elizabeth’s Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve two conditional use permits for EQT’s six-well Heracles project, which has been at the center of a three-year legal battle pitting environmental group Protect Elizabeth Township against the company and township. The permits include stipulations regarding the safety of the site.
Seven residents spoke against the project and permit at the Monday evening commission meeting, raising concerns over the site’s proximity to the school.
“I’m concerned about the development of gas infrastructure in our township. I don’t believe it serves us very well,” Elizabeth resident Catherine Anderson said. “Pulling gas out of the ground and burning it has consequences for air quality, our environment and climate, and water withdrawals.”
Russell Verbanec was the lone resident speaking in favor of the project, pointing to his own lower natural gas prices, other financial benefits for township residents and his confidence that “EQT can conduct their operations with no negative impacts to the health and safety of the public.”
Commission President Joshua Walls also said the township has been approached for a data center development. Reading aloud a statement on behalf of the commission, Walls provided few details about the project but said the township would host a public information session on a date to be determined.
“The Board of Commissioners believes our responsibility is to fully understand what is being proposed, what the potential impacts could be and what it could mean for our residents before forming any conclusions,” Walls read.
One condition: fire department funds
The board’s Monday decision is the second bite at the apple for EQT, and likely the final step for the operation. The approvals cover two aspects of the site: the well pad itself and an interconnect hub, which connects natural gas operations to a pipeline.
Conditional use permits allow property owners to use lands in ways not permitted by right in their zoning districts.
The approvals came with stipulations, which township Solicitor Matt Racunas read aloud. Under the agreement, EQT is required to pay into a 10-year, township-controlled “emergency preparedness fund” due to the site’s proximity to the high school.
The fund can be used by the township or its fire departments to purchase and update fire equipment. It’s calculated based on the total real estate tax millage applied against all real property in the township. The rate is fixed and can’t change over the 10-year period.
EQT can terminate payments after the wells are permanently plugged, abandoned or production stops for good at the site.
Some of the other conditions for the approval require EQT to:
- Pay the township’s attorney’s and engineering fees associated with the conditional use application and hearing process
- Install three security cameras at the site
- Provide the township access to air monitoring reports
- Repair or resurface any township-owned roadway damaged by the company.
Racunas declined to comment.
“I’m concerned about the development of gas infrastructure in our township. I don’t believe it serves us very well.”
Catherine Anderson, Elizabeth Township Resident
Last month, coming up on a 45-day decision deadline, the township punted its decision on the wells, with commissioners saying they needed more time. The decision came after a three-hour conditional use hearing in July, at which residents voiced concerns over the possible environmental and health impacts of the wells due to their proximity to the school.
Under the state’s Municipalities Planning Code, if the township didn’t meet the previous 45-day deadline, the permit would automatically be approved in favor of the applicant, EQT.
Joshua Ash, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the director of the school’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, said it isn’t uncommon for companies and municipalities to push past the 45-day deadline.
Ash said applicants and municipalities can agree to extend deadlines as a “good faith showing that they play along” that can then be used as evidence if the approval is appealed in court.
Blaine Lucas, an attorney representing EQT, declined to comment.
Litigation will continue
The operation has been mired in litigation since its inception.
Protect Elizabeth Township (PET) filed a lawsuit against the township shortly after it approved an initial conditional use permit for the project in 2023.
A state appellate court threw out that permit last year, ruling that the township’s approval violated its own zoning regulations. EQT came back with a plan it believed would alleviate the issue by subdividing the property into separate lots. The township approved the subdivision plan in September.
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PET is challenging the subdivision in court, arguing the township approved it despite “numerous errors” of the town’s zoning ordinances, including placing the well and interconnect pads onto one lot.
In the midst of the litigation, EQT has been producing natural gas at the site. The fracked wells started producing in April 2024, according to EQT legal filings. From that time to April 2026 the site produced just over 35.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The average American home consumes between 160 and 195 cubic feet of natural gas per day.
PET filed a separate lawsuit to halt production at the site entirely, claiming the site is unauthorized to produce gas without an existing permit. Lucas said at the July hearing that the company doesn’t “necessarily agree” with PET’s position that the company no longer had an approval for the conditional use.
Both lawsuits are currently pending.
Scott Taylor, PET’s president and an Elizabeth Township resident, said at the hearing that the group will continue to fight the project in court.
Lucas Dufalla is the Southern Communities Reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at lucas@publicsource.org.
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