West Deer residents challenge Leto well pad approval

A West Deer community advocacy group and nine residents have formally filed a land use appeal against the township and its board of supervisors over an approved well pad in Bairdford.

The filing, submitted Wednesday in Allegheny County Court, alleges that the project’s applicant, Olympus Energy of Canonsburg, failed to satisfy requirements in the township’s ordinance.

The filing also claims the township supervisors “committed capricious disregard” by not considering or addressing evidence raised by those opposed and also “committed errors of law, acted arbitrary and capricious, and abused its discretion.”

A spokesman for Olympus Energy said the company does not comment on matters that are under legal appeal. Township solicitor Gavin Robb said West Deer does not comment on pending litigation.

The township’s planning commission wasn’t able to issue a recommendation to supervisors.

In June, township supervisors approved the Leto well pad with 36 conditions, saying they believed the project met township ordinances. Olympus filed the application for the unconventional natural gas well pad in 2019 at a site zoned for industrial uses. It is off Oak Road behind a Dollar General store.

“The board of supervisors finds that the substantial evidence presented at the public hearing, including the documents, plans, studies, testimony and other evidence presented, demonstrates that the proposed Leto well pad complies with all of the applicable criteria for a ‘deep well site’ in the zoning ordinance,” the decision states.

But a group of township residents opposed to the well, known as the Concerned Residents of West Deer, and nine residents who live within three-quarters of a mile of the Leto well pad — James and Norann Shuey, Cara and Jon Randza, Victoria Austin, Jeremy and Abbey Koenig and Robert and Yvonne Hutchinson — disagree with the finding. They filed the appeal.

The appeal alleges that the board violated its principal use and legal advertising requirements. It cites a “stormwater pond” and surrounding fence that straddles the property line where the Leto well pad would be located, as well as the parcel next to it, and isn’t any part of an application from Olympus. The adjoining parcel has the same property owner but is zoned residential.

It further alleges the board erred in approving Leto because it violates the zoning ordinance through setbacks, access road and conditional-use requirements.

The plaintiffs also are asking a judge to decide whether the township violated the state’s Sunshine Act. They want to be awarded the cost of the proceedings, including attorneys’ fees and other relief the court finds necessary.

Olympus had submitted another proposed well pad named Dionysus, which the supervisors rejected in 2021. Olympus appealed that decision but sought to withdraw before a court ruling could be made.

The Leto site is about a mile from the Dionysus site. Company representatives wrote in the court filing that Leto’s development will allow Olympus “to access a significant portion of the oil and gas lease acreage that otherwise would have been accessed via the Dionysus well pad.”