The Highland Township Municipal Authority is asking a federal judge to allow it to intervene in a lawsuit between the township supervisors and Seneca Resources over the controversial Home Rule Charter.

The municipal authority is the water provider for residents of James City, drawing the water from Crystal Spring, which is located “at the base of the hill upon which Seneca intends to inject waste from the process of hydraulic fracturing,” a motion to intervene filed on behalf of the authority states.

“Recognizing the right to intervene guards against the unlawful bargaining away of people’s rights without the people having their day in court,” the motion reads.

The lawsuit was filed by Seneca over several provisions of Highland Township’s Home Rule Charter, which was adopted by referendum in the November election. Seneca has alleged — and the township supervisors have agreed — that portions of the charter are unconstitutional.

The sections of the charter in question purport to deny Seneca the right to drill an injection well in Highland Township, even though the federal Environmental Protection Agency has granted a permit for it to move forward. The well is legal under Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Act, but the charter purports to supersede that, as well as permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The charter also purports to strip the right of redress for corporations under the U.S. Constitution, and to use zoning to prohibit storage and disposal of oil and gas produced waters in the township.

The municipal authority “has significant interests at stake that will be severely compromised or completely lost if it is not allowed to defend the charter,” a memorandum in support of the intervention reads.

The township supervisors are not defending the “democratically elected charter,” the authority alleged. “The Municipal Authority believes there are good grounds to defend the people’s right to home rule and right to local, community self government,” reads the memorandum.

Seneca’s injection well “threatens the right of the public to control municipal water supplies,” the court document read. “Public control of the municipal water supply is effective only so long as the public remains the ultimate decision-maker on actions that may carry a risk to their water supply.

“In short, the Municipal Authority wants to protect the Crystal Spring, it has the right to protect the Crystal Spring, and it has the right to make decisions about technology that could contaminate the people’s water supply.”

The lawsuit remains pending in federal court in Erie.