Agency rejects fracking well bid
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection rejected a permit in Indiana County for Pennsylvania General Energy Co. to build a hydraulic fracturing wastewater injection well Aug. 12, citing the authority of a local ordinance banning injection wells.
Thomas Linzey, executive director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said it was an unprecedented step for the DEP to take in recognizing Grant Township’s local ordinances as having authority in local affairs.
PGE Co. sued Grant Township in June 2014 to overturn the community’s “Bill of Rights” ordinance.
The Legal Defense Fund helped draft those ordinances. PGE argued its corporate constitutional rights were violated and is seeking reimbursed attorneys’ fees and damages from Grant Township.
The rejection letter from DEP said “as part of its permit application review, the department has an obligation to consider applicable local ordinances related to environmental protection and the commonwealth’s public natural resources.”
John Smith, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the ongoing Act 13 natural gas drilling challenge before the state Supreme Court, said, “The DEP should continue to recognize its obligation to respect local ordinances that comply with statutory and constitutional directives that serve to protect local residents from negative environmental impacts, and the fact they’re acknowledging local zoning is an essential part of considering these permits is how it should be.
“It still has to be seen what kind of arguments are made in eminent domain language to take over land without a valid public use, as a company can ask for land for gas storage, then go ahead with a frack injection well once they have the land,” Smith said.
The Legal Defense Fund has filed separate motions to intervene and dismiss PGE’s case.