Small Indiana County community assessed legal fees in injection well dispute

A rural Indiana County township that fought a gas company’s plan to put an injection well within its boundaries has lost its fight in court in federal court and must pay the gas company’s legal fees.

StateImpactPA reports a federal judge has ordered Grant Township, a small northern Indiana County community, to pay the Pennsylvania General Energy Company nearly $103,000 in legal fees.

The bill comes to about $150 per person for township of about 700 residents.

Injection wells used to dispose of waste from oil and gas drilling became an issue in Western Pennsylvania as drillers drawn here a decade ago by the Marcellus Shale sought ways to dispose of the millions of gallons of wastes created in fracking the rich underground deposits. The residents of Grant Township feared placing such a well in the rural community would pose an environmental hazard to local streams.

Grant Township officials tried twice to block Pennsylvania Genera Energy Company from siting an injection well in the township. In 2014, Grant supervisors passed an ordinance designed to block the well. When that ordinance was ruled unconstitutional, the township adopted a home rule charter that included a provision officials believed would bar such activities.

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Paradise Baxter ruled that the township was at fault in the lengthy battle and must pay a portion of the legal fees the company incurred.