Environmental groups have called on Gov. Tom Wolf to revoke a state-issued permit that allows an oil and gas company to dispose of fracking fluids at a site in Plum.
“We again want to ask the governor of Pennsylvania to uphold our constitutional rights to clean air and pure water and revoke the permit for the Plum waste injection well,” said Gillian Graber, executive director of ProtectPT, an environmental group based in Harrison City.
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Wolf's office says he doesn't have authority to revoke any wells after request to stop wastewater well in Plum
By Paul J. Gough Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
A decision on a natural-gas waste injection well that is being built in Plum won’t rest with the governor, who was appealed to by a group of activists and residents who want to stop the project.
Breathe Project, Protect PT and other groups had sent a letter to Wolf on Wednesday, urging him to revoke the permit for Penneco Environmental Services for the Sedat #3A disposal well. They say there are a host of environmental concerns about the natural gas well that Penneco will be converting into an injection well. Penneco, which already has a similar injection well in operation in West Virginia, said there’s no safety concerns.
The well, which could become operational this spring, already has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection after a yearslong review process. The latest action in the case, an appeal to the Environmental Hearing Board of the DEP by Plum, was withdrawn in 2020. The letter was written to Wolf because residents had no other options to challenge the well.
