In 2022, the federal EPA granted an initial permit to Roulette Oil and Gas Co., LLC, for a waste injection well to dispose of production fluids from the company’s 270+ conventional gas wells. The site of this proposed injection well is in Clara Township in western Potter County.

Before reaching its decision, the EPA had given public notice and provided a 90-day period to accept public comments, followed by a virtual hearing held in February 2021.  In its “responsiveness summary” to concerns raised in the comments and submitted at the hearing and also accepted in an extended comment period, the EPA acknowledged that although they had received comments concerning environmental and quality-of-life impacts (such as, noise, air, light, and soil pollution and truck traffic and impacts on roads), those matters were outside the “jurisdictional scope and purview of UIC (Underground Injection Control) regulations of the EPA’s permitting process” and were therefore not considered in the agency’s issuance of the permit. (https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-12/roulette_responsiveness-summary-to-public-comment_final.pdf)

Now the final permit must be approved by PA’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which has NOT provided public notice, nor has it agreed to a public comment period or hearing.  Instead, they have offered a “conference call” with a limit of two or three speakers voicing their concerns and objections to the proposed well.

A group of local citizens, the Clara Township supervisors, and members of various water protection groups, are rejecting DEP’s offer and are calling for the same public participation as was offered by the EPA.  Since the DEP should and must consider impacts beyond the EPA’s jurisdiction, the public has the right to participate, particularly as the COVID pandemic required a virtual hearing by the federal agency, which likely prevented many concerned citizens from participating in that process in 2020-21.

This group of concerned citizens and stakeholders urges readers to either call DEP officials, including Acting Secretary Rich Negrin (717-705-4700); DEP Office of Oil & Gas Management Acting Secretary Kurt Klapkowski (570-327-3636); and Tom Donohue, Environmental Program Manager for District Oil and Gas Operations (412-442-4000), or use DEP’s website https://www.dep.pa.gov to contact these individuals.  Ask them to provide public notice, a comment period, and a public hearing before issuing a permit for this injection well.

We can expect neither transparency nor accountability from our government agencies if we don’t demand it.

Mary Anne Heston

Hector Township