This article by Chauncey Ross appeared in the Indiana Gazette on March 6th, 2020
PITTSBURGH — A state appeals court has turned aside an appeal by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and left standing a home rule charter adopted by a northern Indiana County municipality in a bid to control its own local environment.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled Wednesday against the DEP’s petition to invalidate the Grant Township home rule form of government. The judges called the effort a “collateral attack” and said it was “without merit.”
The township has been backed for several years by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in its mission to halt the planned construction of an injection well, using a spent natural gas well near East Run for the disposal of fluids and other waste drawn from gas well drilling and exploration by Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE).
The ruling, according to CELDF community organizer Chad Nicholson, “allows Grant Township to argue that local governing authority is necessary to protect the community’s constitutional rights in the face of harmful state oil and gas policies.”
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