Public to weigh in on proposed Leto compressor station in West Deer

West Deer supervisors have set a Sept. 26 public hearing date on a proposed compressor station on the Leto well pad property.

The hearing will be held at St. Victor Church, Our Lady of the Lakes Parish.

Vice chairwoman Shirley Hollibaugh said during the board’s recent meeting that the township received an application from Hyperion Midstream to build and operate a natural gas compressor station on the property along Oak Road.

A natural gas compressor station might be allowed as a conditional use in industrial-zoned districts. The proposal would need to meet the township’s zoning ordinances.

Hyperion is a subsidiary of Olympus Energy.

According to Hyperion’s application, the total acreage of the site is 48 acres, and the compressor station would disturb less than four of those acres. The facility would be a pre-engineered metal building about 97 feet by 60 feet.

An estimated construction start date is December 2024.

It would be accessed from Oak Road through the Leto well pad.

“Hyperion is committed to health and safety,” reads the project narrative submitted to the township. “To this end, Hyperion will provide the township’s first responders with appropriate training, including a site orientation, prior to operations at the well pad site.”

A hotline number also has been established.

The site is wooded and includes areas reclaimed from past mining activities, the application said.

The Leto well pad — which was approved by supervisors in June but is undergoing a court challenge by neighbors — is on the same property as the proposed compressor station.

Leto is one of three well pads that have been submitted in West Deer. The Dionysus well pad proposal was rejected by the supervisors in 2021. Olympus had appealed that decision but withdrew the challenge this summer after the supervisors approved the Leto site.

Olympus submitted plans for the Tyche well pad at 201 Bairdford Road, west of Pittsburgh National Golf Club, in early July.

Supervisors in late July held a public hearing for the Deer Creek interconnect and pipeline plan, also proposed by Hyperion.

The project would allow gas to flow from Leto to the eastern interconnect pipeline. The interconnect is a conditional use in a special-use zoning district. It is on property off Route 910 owned by Allison Park Contractors. A decision has not been made on that project.