Court Ruling: Grant Township Owes $100,000 to Company Seeking to Dump Frack Waste in Community

A press release issued by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund on April 1st, 2019:

GRANT TOWNSHIP, INDIANA COUNTY, PA: On April 1, federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter issued an order that was not a joke: Grant Township (pop. 741), Baxter declared, owes Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) over $100,000 in attorney’s fees and costs.

Since 2014, with assistance from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), Grant Township has been fighting to prevent a frack-waste injection well proposed by PGE.

  • Injection wells receive radioactive waste, threaten drinking water, and cause earthquakes.
  • PGE, the corporation that intends to dump frack waste, has repeatedly violated perrmits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
  • Permits legalizing the proposed injection well have been issued by the DEP and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
  • The PA DEP has sued Grant Township – in state court – to legalize the injection well.
  • PGE has sued Grant Township – in federal court – to operate the injection well.
  • That federal court has agreed with PGE, and has now awarded the corporation over $100,000.
  • The same federal court has fined Grant Township’s attorneys for $52,000 for seeking to defend Grant Township’s authority to protect against frack waste.

Read the rest of this press release at its original source HERE.