Unprecedented Lawsuit Pits Ecosystem Against Company Over Fracking Waste
Rachel Martin /
PITTSBURGH — In a sparsely populated township in western Pennsylvania, one ecosystem is attempting to enter a court battle in its own name.
In Grant Township, Pennsylvania General Energy wants to convert one of its fracking wells into a waste disposal well. It received a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March.
Township residents are concerned the fracking waste could contaminate the watershed. All the township’s residents use private wells for their drinking water.
The township passed a Community Bill of Rights Ordinance in June, which effectively would ban such injection wells. It states, in part:
All residents of Grant Township, along with natural communities and ecosystems within the Township, possess the right to clean air, water, and soil, which shall include the right to be free from activities which may pose potential risks to clean air, water, and soil within the Township, including the depositing of waste from oil and gas extraction.
Unsurprisingly, Pennsylvania General Energy filed a federal lawsuit in August. The company wants the court to overturn the ordinance.
In a novel move, the ecosystem — the Little Mahoning Watershed — filed a motion to intervene in the case in November, asserting that nature has its own rights to “exist and flourish.”
“This represents the first time an ecosystem is seeking to defend its legally enforceable rights to exist and flourish by intervening in a lawsuit,” said Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Thomas Linzey in a news release.
The CELDF has been retained by the township to represent it in the case. From the motion:
For the Little Mahoning Watershed, its very right to exist is threatened by this litigation. If the court strikes the ordinance, it would legally eliminate the Watershed’s rights, and also authorize PGE to engage in waste depositing activities that would physically impair those rights.