For the second time, a court has struck down attempts by Highland Township residents to govern oil and gas operations within the township’s limits.
Last month, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court voided four provisions of Highland Township’s controversial home rule charter, all of which had been provisions of the Community Bill of Rights, ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge and repealed last year.
In a ruling dated April 11, Judge Michael Wojcik granted declaratory judgment in favor of the state Department of Environmental Protection in a civil action filed in March against Highland Township and its supervisors.
The civil action came about from provisions which purported to give the township the ability to deny permission to any corporation or government to deposit “waste from oil and gas extraction” within the township; the ability to reject any permits from state and federal government agencies that went against the charter’s purported rights; and the ability to issue fines against any corporation or government that violated the charter; as well as granting superseding authority to the charter over state and federal law.
After the DEP issued a well permit to Seneca Resources for brine disposal by injection — as permitted under the Oil and Gas Act in Pennsylvania — agency officials filed suit in Commonwealth Court against Highland’s alleged illegal regulations.
In the complaint, the DEP claimed the Oil and Gas Act preempted three of the provisions of Highland’s charter; the Home Rule Charter Act prohibited a municipality from exercising powers contrary to state law; and that the agency had sovereign immunity from fines or penalties purported to be possible under the charter.
Those four sections of the charter “unlawfully prevent the department from exercising its statutory duties under the Oil and Gas Act and the Solid Waste Management Act, and prevent the department from meeting its obligations under … the Pennsylvania Constitution,” the DEP complaint read.
Enjoining the implementation and enforcement of those four sections would not “otherwise affect the other unchallenged portions of the Home Rule Charter,” the complaint read.
In the Commonwealth Court’s order, which ruled in favor of the DEP, it was noted that counsel for Highland Township and the DEP had stipulated to the entry of the order.
