Just outside a fence enclosing a field on Debbie Hanes' farm near Hickory in Washington County sits a noisy, smelly, two-story natural gas compressor station, running 24/7 and lit up at night like a minor league baseball park.

The rumbling noise of the four compressors in what's known as the Fulton Station is audible a little more than 700 feet away at Ms. Hanes' home in Mount Pleasant and to other residents of Washington Road up to a half-mile away.

MarkWest Energy Partners built the boxy, steel-clad building in 2008 for $4.4 million to collect gas from then-burgeoning Marcellus shale drilling and push it through a growing pipeline system to a processing plant eight miles to the southeast in Houston.

The station, which was expanded from two to four compressors last year without public notification, emits an industrial chemical odor into the bucolic countryside. At least once a day the operation produces a startling "belch" -- a pressure release from valves located less than 50 feet from Ms. Hanes' property line that is loud enough to spook humans, as well as her donkeys and horses in adjacent fields.

"We have farmland all around our property and the compressor station creates a huge change to the character of this neighborhood," said Ms. Hanes, a member of a Mount Pleasant citizens committee that seeks more local input into future drilling operations. The committee has proposed an amendment to the local zoning ordinance aimed at regulating some of the noise, lighting, odor and air pollution impact associated with Marcellus shale gas drilling facilities.

The first Marcellus shale gas well in Pennsylvania was drilled in Mount Pleasant in 2004. The zoning amendment now under consideration by township supervisors puts the municipality on the front lines of a battle between the gas industry and a growing number of local governments over controlling problems created by the fast-growing shale gas industry.

"What we're seeing here is a sign of things to come throughout the state," Ms. Hanes said. "What we do about it has a lot of implications for the whole Marcellus shale drilling region.

"We're not talking about stopping the drilling. We recognize the value of the gas," she said. "But our goal is to make it possible to extract the gas in a way that doesn't damage the residents, their property or the environment and that preserves the rural character of Mount Pleasant."

The 5,000- to 8,000-foot-deep Marcellus shale layer that underlies three-quarters of the state and parts of New York, Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia could hold as much as 363 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- enough to supply the nation's gas demands for 10 to 15 years.

An early volley in the fight over municipal regulation of the gas industry came last week at a Mount Pleasant zoning board hearing. MarkWest has appealed the township zoning officer's denial of its application for a building permit to add a fifth compressor to the Fulton Station and a third and fourth compressor to the company's Stewart Station 21/2 miles west on Caldwell Road.

Speaking before a standing-room crowd of more than 100 residents, zoning officer Larry Chome said both compressor stations are "nonconforming uses" for areas zoned for agricultural use.

Neither the structures nor the proposed expansions, he said, are permitted unless the zoning hearing board approves "special exception uses."

But Jason Wrona, an attorney who represented MarkWest at the hearing, presented several justifications for the multimillion dollar compressor projects. He said they are allowed by the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Act, which, he said, precludes regulation of gas drilling activities by local municipalities.

The oil and gas industry's long-held position is that the state Oil & Gas Act covers all aspects of the industry's activities. Township officials allowed construction of the Fulton and Stewart stations without building permits because they, too, believed they could not regulate the industry.

But John Smith, an attorney representing Ms. Hanes, said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in two decisions last year that municipalities may regulate industry activities not mentioned in the 1984 act, including such things as compressor stations.

"There aren't many municipal ordinances like this in the state because until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in 2009 it was generally believed that the Oil & Gas Act precluded local ordinances. That's why we're seeing all this activity starting now," said Mr. Smith. He also is the solicitor in nearby Cecil, where officials plan a final vote March 22 on an ordinance regulating gas industry activities.

That ordinance, along with the zoning amendment proposed in Mount Pleasant, may set the standard for other municipalities seeking to control development of Marcellus shale gas well facilities.

Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources, a natural gas drilling company that sends its gas through the MarkWest stations, said the industry is looking for "consistent, reasonable" regulations throughout the state. He said the compressor station operations should fall under state regulations.

"We look at it as an evolving process," Mr. Pitzarella said, adding that his company has been working with more than a dozen municipalities on local regulatory issues.

"We would like to see an updating of the state statutes but it has to be a partnership," he said. "The opportunity is far too great for us not to get it right."

Ms. Hanes said the citizens committee reviewed 20 ordinances from other natural gas drilling states, including Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, before presenting its proposed zoning ordinance amendments to Mount Pleasant supervisors Feb. 24.

As deep gas wells proliferate -- more than 2,500 wells were permitted by the state from 2007 through 2009, and another 5,000 permits are projected to be issued this year -- air quality issues have become a growing concern for people who live near gas industry facilities, even in rural areas.

JoAnne Wagner, a member of the citizens committee, said the gas industry facilities are allowed to operate now under a state Department of Environmental Protection "general permit" that requires no ambient air testing for emissions or tests to determine the potential effect of air pollutants on nearby residents and the environment.

"The general permit wasn't crafted or intended for what they are seeing now," Ms. Wagner said.

In Texas, for example, some Barnett shale gas wells in residential areas of Fort Worth produced high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen. In Utah and Colorado, Ms. Wagner said, state officials are considering regulating emissions of gas production facilities.

If a fifth compressor is added to the Fulton Station it would be classified by the state as a "major source" of emissions for nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds. It would be subject to limitations on emissions of formaldehyde and benzene.

Nathan Wheldon, senior environmental engineer for MarkWest, said the company has applied to the state for a pollution emissions permit and expects no difficulties in obtaining it. The company already operates three other stations in Washington County that house five compressors, he said, and pollution at those locations is "well within federal and state emission standards."

"We're under a general permit now because the state has determined the [emissions] impacts are so low," he said.

Mr. Wheldon said MarkWest operates 111 compressor stations nationwide, mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. Some contain as many as 12 compressors, and the company has successfully abated noise problems at all of those sites, he said.

But Ms. Hanes said efforts to control noise in Mount Pleasant have been less successful, and she questioned the company's commitment to be a good neighbor.

In the meantime, Mount Pleasant continues to grapple with the noise, lights, odor and air pollution issues related to its two compressor stations. The MarkWest zoning appeal hearing, which was continued last week after three hours, will continue at 7 p.m. March 30, in the Mount Pleasant Community Center, 20 Wabash Ave., Hickory.

In a related issue, the zoning board on April 13 also will hear an appeal filed by Range Resources after the township denied the company's request to house drilling workers in trailers at five well sites. That hearing also will also be at the community center.

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