Upper Burrell will soon undergo surveying for lateral fracking lines that could connect to natural gas company EQT’s Hermes well pad in neighboring Murrysville.
Township residents received letters this week from Wisconsin consulting firm Verdanterra, which will conduct the surveying.
“While surveying for well lateral locations, we may require access to properties in the township,” the letter reads.
It says access will be only by foot and that no land disturbance or brush cutting will occur.
“Our activities are limited to observation and measurement only,” it reads.
Township Supervisor Chairman Ross Walker said the letter is standard practice, and the township has been surveyed in the past.
“It’s innocuous,” Walker said. “It doesn’t hurt anything. It’s just a standard operating procedure, just notifying that there could be somebody, maybe, on your property.”
He said the township was not contacted before the letters went out.
EQT and Verdanterra did not respond to calls for comment Thursday.
Lateral lines are installed horizontally and connect to a well pad that can be several miles away.
The average length of well lateral lines in the Appalachia region has increased by thousands of feet in the past 15 years, according to The American Oil and Gas Reporter.
The Hermes well pad was built in 2024, then owned by Olympus Energy. In 2025, EQT acquired Olympus for $1.8 billion.
In 2024, Murrysville officials approved temporary infrastructure that would connect the Hephaestus well pad in Upper Burrell to the Hermes well pad on the border of Murrysville and Plum.
Upper Burrell has seven well sites, according to marcellusgas.org.
