Drilling Firm Challenges Township Waste Ordinance

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A gas and oil drilling company is suing an Indiana County township, claiming that an ordinance passed to ban the disposal of drilling byproducts like fracking fluids and briny water is illegal and trumped by state and federal law.

Officials in Grant Township, Indiana County, have yet to see the lawsuit filed late Friday by the Pennsylvania General Energy Company, of Warren.

But township Supervisor Fred Carlson says its own attorney has advised the ordinance may be illegal. The township supervisors are meeting Tuesday to discuss either rescinding the ordinance, or fighting to defend it in court.

The ordinance and resulting lawsuit were spawned by PGE's plans to convert an old underground natural gas well to an injection well, where the company could dispose of briny water and other fluids from drilling.

Lawsuit