Seneca Resources is suing Highland Township again — this time about the township’s newly adopted Home Rule Charter, which Seneca alleges may be in violation of state and federal laws.
The suit, filed in federal court in Erie on Nov. 30, is seeking to “temporarily and permanently enjoin Highland Township and its board of supervisors from enforcing the Home Rule Charter which … illegally purports to ban otherwise properly permitted and regulated underground injection control wells” within the township.
Portions of this charter, the suit alleged, are “substantially identical” to the ordinance that was struck down in federal court as unconstitutional earlier this year.
In fact, Seneca alleged, Highland Township and Seneca representatives entered a consent order after the first federal lawsuit; the consent order was approved by the court. In that order, both Seneca and Highland’s representatives acknowledged that Highland’s attempt to block the injection well was unconstitutional and unenforceable. However, the Home Rule Charter contains same provisions — which were already declared unconstitutional, the suit read.
Seneca holds a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the disposal well, but Highland Township’s charter “purports to nullify the extensive and comprehensive review of UIC well permit applications conducted by the EPA and replace EPA’s role in environmental regulation with that of an unconstitutional local law,” the suit read.
According to the suit, the charter purports to invalidate state and federal permits; create an individual right to enforce its provisions for any Highland Township resident; authorize otherwise illegal individual law enforcement; invalidate legal statutes and regulations of the state of Pennsylvania and the Department of Environmental Protection; preempt the federal Safe Drinking Water Act; and overrule federal law which allows a corporation the right to assert various constitutional claims.
That, Seneca alleged, is a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which declares the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
Seneca said Highland Township also is attempting to practice exclusionary zoning, as under Pennsylvania law, a municipal law may not completely exclude a legitimate use. And the Home Rule Charter provides no process or procedure under which it could be challenged, thus blocking the constitutional right of redress of grievances, the suit alleged.
Seneca is asking the federal court to declare the following: federal and state law preempt the Home Rule Charter; the charter is an “impermissible exercise of police power by the township;” the charter is a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution; the charter violates Seneca’s constitutional rights; the charter constitutes illegal exclusionary zoning and is an impermissible exercise of legislative authority. Seneca is asking for injunctions to prevent the township from enforcing the charter or “otherwise interfering with Seneca’s operations within the township” and to award damages, fees and costs, according to the suit.
As of Friday, no response had been filed by Highland Township.
The case has been assigned to Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Erie.
