When Jackson Township proposed an amendment to its oil and gas ordinances last month, it nearly threw a monkey wrench into what county leaders consider a symbiotic relationship between Butler County and the oil and gas industries.

The amendment would have reduced oil and gas well site development to a conditional use, as well as reduced the maximum amount of well pads on a residential property to three, among other changes. The township’s current oil and gas ordinance allows well site development as a permitted use in all zoning districts with no limit.

It was ultimately turned down twice — first by the township’s planning commission and then two weeks later by the board of supervisors.

Rearick said the genesis of the failed amendment came as a result of a proposed well pad on Ridge Road, which led to concerns from newer residents about the township’s existing regulations on oil and gas.

“Residents voiced concerns regarding the scale and potential health effects of drilling, particularly near residential neighborhoods,” Rearick said.

For Butler County, however, measures, such as the one brought before Jackson Township may be a tough sell, as the proceeds from oil and gas exploration help Butler County run.

“Municipalities derive some funding off of the impact fees associated with oil, and that is used for road maintenance and the like,” said Mark Gordon, chief of economic development and planning for Butler County. “These are things that benefit all of our residents and all of our visitors.”

Butler County has taken the county’s share of Act 13 impact fees and used it to fund the Infrastructure Bank, which began in 2017. The Infrastructure Bank is a loan financing program, which is used to benefit infrastructure improvement projects throughout the county.

Through that program, the county has provided about $60 million in loans at low interest rates, playing a role in about $200 million worth of projects across the county over the past four years, Gordon said.

“It has been utilized for water and sewer, it's been utilized for roads, it's been utilized for bridges, it's been utilized for stormwater control. And all of those are acceptable uses.”

All ends of the county have benefited in the process. Some of the projects benefiting from the fund have included the MSA Thruway, flood mitigation in the City of Butler and the realignment of Harrisville Road.

Earlier this week, the state announced Butler County would receive $8.18 million in its 2025 allocation from the Municipal Liquid Fuels Program, which falls under the umbrella of Act 13, Gordon explained.

Last year, Butler County municipalities received more than $8.16 million in liquid fuels payments from the state to help them maintain infrastructure.

The proposed ordinance, suggesting more restrictions on oil and gas exploration, would have also conflicted with what the nation’s leader is currently encouraging. The proposal came just a few weeks after President Donald Trump made an inaugural address to the nation in which he promised to “drill, baby, drill.” The president reiterated this promise during a joint session of Congress on March 4.

“I was completely surprised. This came at a time in which our country was at the advent of a newly elected president who pledged to unleash the abundance of energy and natural resources under our feet,” said Butler County Commissioner Kim Geyer. “It made me question why a township who has experienced firsthand natural gas impact fees that have been reinvested into their township’s roads, bridges and parks to benefit all their residents and taxpayers would impede the development of these resources.”

President of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce Jordan Grady believes that, had the amendment gone through, it would have made it significantly more difficult for private industry to do exactly that in Jackson Township.

“Had the ordinance been approved, it would have significantly hindered future oil and gas exploration in Jackson Township,” Grady said. “Additionally, the proposed ordinance could have influenced future utility bills for consumers, as natural gas is a primary source of power generation in our grid.”

However, township Supervisor Jay Grinnell said the amendment had little support from either the public or the township leaders. He estimates the amount of people who supported the ordinance amendment were outnumbered by a 3-to-1 margin by those who did not.

“The supervisors all independently read all the studies we could find, and we could not find any justifiable proof that there was any health issues or possible harm from the fracking,” Grinnell said. “To impose a loss of income on some of the farmers, and people in general that are getting revenue from fracking, without some kind of proof that there's a detriment seems like a pretty unfair thing to do.”

One person who disagrees with Grinnell’s assessment is environmental advocate Jane Cleary, who has spent years fighting against the reopening of the Tri-County Landfill in Mercer County. If the reopening goes through, the landfill could potentially become a dumping site for radioactive fracking waste material, she said.

Cleary was present at the planning commission meeting on Feb. 6 when the amendment was first discussed. During the meeting, she mentioned the possibility that radioactive runoff from the fracking process could be disposed into the Seneca Landfill — located not far from the Jackson Township building.

That radioactive material, in turn, could be deposited into Connoquenessing Creek, which runs alongside the landfill, she said.

“If they're going to start putting 10 wellheads on a piece of property, when they get their fracking waste, they're going to dump it right here in Butler County if they can. They're not going to pay to haul it away to Ohio or anywhere else when they’ve got a landfill there that’ll take it,” Cleary said. “And they're just going to dump it in the creek.”

Multiple local government and industry representatives expressed confidence in the ability of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to regulate Pennsylvania’s fracking industry, and its oil and gas industries in general.

“The DEP is renowned for its stringent regulatory framework for oil and gas drilling, one of the toughest in the nation,” Grady said. “It includes rigorous requirements for permits, well siting, drilling operations and well abandonment, especially concerning unconventional gas extraction. This ensures robust environmental protection and public safety.”

However, Cleary sharply disagrees with that assessment, based on her own experience with fighting the reopening of the Tri-County Landfill.

Forward Township manager Tom Hartwig says that legislation like the proposed Jackson Township amendment wouldn’t be feasible in his township, as Forward doesn’t have a zoning ordinance.

“Forward has no zoning, and consequently there are no restrictions on our residents when it comes to oil and gas well development,” Hartwig said. “It is the general consensus throughout the township that folks should be able to do what they want to do with their land, without regulation.”

However, Adams Township — located in the more developed southwestern section of the county — falls more in line with the policy on oil and gas that was originally proposed in Jackson Township.

For example, oil and gas extraction for personal use is only a conditional use in Adams Township, and even then, only in the “rural conservation” and “residential agricultural low-density” zoning districts. In addition, township code states the conditional use application must be filed before approval of the excavation permit, and the township’s board of supervisors has the right to close the excavating operation at their discretion.

“It’s conditional use because it gives the opportunity for the township to put restrictions on it, whether it needs to be for separation of property lines, for noise mitigation, for sound, buffer yards, those type of things,” said township manager Gary Peaco. “There’s only two residential zoning districts where we allow it.”