Justice for Grassroots Groups in Southwest PA — Courtroom Battles Against Fracking Waste and Industry Overreach
- Protect PT
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
On May 6, 2025, Protect PT's Executive Director Gillian Graber, Community Advocate Jim Cirilano, and Staff Attorney Dylan Basescu attended oral arguments at the Commonwealth Court in Pittsburgh in two cases that will affect how Pennsylvania state and local law protects residents from the harms of toxic fracking waste disposal and dangerous pipeline and processing facilities in residential areas.
In Liberty Township and CEASRA v. the Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) and Tri-County Landfill Inc., attorney Lisa Johnson, who represents Liberty Township and CEASRA, showed conclusively why the Department was wrong to let Tri-County Landfill begin taking in new waste, including oil and gas waste. Tri-County would be collecting this waste less than two miles away from the Grove City Airport, which puts aircraft at risk of bird strikes, as birds are attracted to the landfill's waste. Groundwater monitoring in the landfill has detected pollution from historic waste in an unlined area of the landfill, which includes hazardous waste, into the aquifer below the landfill, posing an imminent danger to Liberty Township’s environment and Liberty Township residents.
Since 1990, the department has kept Tri-County closed for many reasons, including compliance history and its proximity to the Grove City Airport, but the department flipped its position and wants to reopen the landfill so that it can accept mixed radioactive and toxic oil and gas fracking waste. This forces Liberty Township to host a landfill that even the DEP admits the public doesn't need. Even after Attorney General Shapiro’s 43rd Grand Jury report on fracking criticized PA DEP’s commitment to their mission, and now years into the Shapiro administration, the DEP has not changed its pro-fracking stance. Instead, DEP and the administration would rather make backroom deals with industry and praise polluters for not-so-radical transparency.”
Faced with sharp questioning by the panel of judges, Tri-County Landfill’s attorney shouted at the judges and cut off their questions so many times that he had to be reminded to stop speaking over the court. The DEP’s attorney was seemingly unprepared. Liberty Township should be optimistic that Pennsylvania's judges will see through the meritless arguments presented by the DEP and a company that shows no respect for Pennsylvanians in Liberty Township or in the courtroom. In addition to Attorney Johnson’s excellent argument in front of the court, she ended with a statement that all Pennsylvanians need to hear: “PA has an oil and gas waste problem and needs a place to put it.” This is a fact that should give judges and community members across the Commonwealth pause as mixed radioactive and toxic waste from oil and gas development continues to be allowed entry into sanitary landfills across the state. This waste is being discharged into our streams, posing serious environmental harm and risks to human health.
The next case on the schedule, Protect Elizabeth Township v. Elizabeth Township and Hyperion Midstream LLC, was centered around Elizabeth Township’s zoning ordinance that sets a limit of one primary structure and use on any property. Attorney John Smith made a strong argument that Elizabeth Township's zoning ordinance doesn't allow Hyperion to build fracked gas infrastructure throughout residential zones on the same parcels as farms, schools, and homes. The plain language of Elizabeth's zoning ordinance created a difficult challenge for Hyperion, which was forced to argue that fracking well pads, pipelines, and gas processing plants are not "structures." Judges across the ideological spectrum could see how much this argument twisted logic and the English language, and it seems apparent from the oral argument that they are prepared to reject it as a clear matter of law. Elizabeth's residents can know that their laws have meaning, and when the laws protect homes from being at risk from leaks, explosions, and pollution, they mean what they say.
Protect PT is proud to stand with Liberty Township, CEASRA, Protect Elizabeth Township, and other grassroots environmental organizations fighting back against fracking across western Pennsylvania that infringes upon our self-evident right to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of our natural environment for generations to come.
— Gillian Graber, PPT Executive Director, and Dylan Basescu, PPT Staff Attorney
