Environmental group touts success against proposed injection well in Plum

An environmental group is celebrating some recent legal challenges against a proposed injection well in Plum while encouraging others to join the effort.

“We’re really excited and happy that we have good news to share with the community,” said Gillian Graber, executive director of Protect PT. “We’re making some really good progress on our court cases and working really hard to bring resources like monitoring to Plum and education to the community.”

Penneco Environmental Solutions wants to add a second injection well at its existing facility on 69 acres on Old Leechburg Road.

Injection wells are used to dispose of fluids — referred to as brine — from oil and natural gas operations.

Penneco had received approval from the borough’s zoning hearing board in January 2022.

The board said at the time it had no power to regulate such wells, and a decision to reject the plans would be overturned in court. Penneco also obtained permits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to operate an underground injection well there.

The second well would be a conversion of an existing natural gas well. The two wells would be about 1,000 feet apart.

Officials at Protect PT updated residents about its legal challenges to Penneco’s plans via a public meeting Tuesday at the Plum Community Center.

Protect PT community advocate Jim Cirilano said they and the borough had appealed the zoning hearing board approval to Allegheny County Court. However, the court sided with the zoning board.

Protect PT then appealed that decision to the state’s Commonwealth Court, which sided with Protect PT.

A 27-page opinion, authored by Commonwealth Court President Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, says the zoning board was not as powerless as it thought to add conditions to the approval of injection wells.

“It’s a big win,” Cirilano said. He said the zoning board would have to reconsider the necessity of the expansion and to consider whether additional requirements protecting public health, safety and welfare apply.

Cirilano also noted Penneco must prove that its need for a second injection well is not solely for economic reasons.

Penneco has operated a natural gas well on the property since 1989.

The EPA permit also is under an appeal to the federal Environmental Appeals Board.

Protect PT argues a second well would be a detriment to people’s health.

Cirilano said anyone who made a comment during the 2022 EPA hearing and public comment portion of the permitting process also can file an appeal by April 5.

He hopes more people who were involved at the time will join the appeal.

“There’s strength in numbers,” Cirilano said. “It’s (to) show that there’s more than a small group of people that are unhappy about it.”

Graber is confident her group and the borough will prevail in stopping the injection well project.

“I really feel confident that we are in the right,” she said. “We know that there are impacts to residents, and that should be a decision-making factor when the zoning hearing board makes their decision. Based on the potential health impacts to the community, I feel they should have denied it in the first place.”

More information about the group’s efforts is available at protectpt.org/injection-well.

Some of Protect PT’s partners, such as Three Rivers Waterkeeper and FracTracker Alliance, also participated in the public forum.

Jess Friss, director of community programs for Three Rivers Waterkeeper, talked about how contamination of water could happen during the injection of wastewater underground with leaks of well casings, the transportation of wastewater to the site and leaks or spills at the on-site storage facility.

Friss said having a second injection well increases those risks and could have an impact on Little Plum Creek and other water sources.

About 40 people attended the event.

“We’re really happy that so many people showed up tonight,” Graber said. “It’s sometimes hard to get people out for a meeting. I think this shows how much the community finds this an important topic.”

Group to study air quality

Graber told those in attendance her group recently was awarded a grant to study air quality in communities around the Plum injection well from late spring of this year through January 2026.

The project involves at least four monitoring sites to capture data in different wind conditions.

Protect PT would work with the nonprofit Environmental Health Project and Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab to analyze air samples and compare them to health standards.

Residents who want to be a part of the project can sign up as an interested contact via rb.gy/5oew42.

Penneco comments on its plans

Penneco Chief Operating Officer Ben Wallace was not at the community meeting but commented on the situation when contacted beforehand.

“We’re pretty familiar with their arguments,” Wallace said of Protect PT. “In general terms: Everything is working its way through the (legal) process.”

He said the second well is 6 to 8 inches in diameter and runs about 1,800 feet below the surface, about identical to the existing well.

Wallace said it is necessary to guarantee reliability to the customers and help maintain daily operations should the other well be down for service.

“Fundamentally, we believe they are safe and effective and heavily regulated,” Wallace said.

“I understand people have concerns, but these (wells) have been around for a long time. And there (are) 80,000 in operation in the United States.

“They keep brine water safe from being disposed of in surface waters and rivers. We’re putting it back into the earth where brine exists naturally. We’re confident that, ultimately, the permits will be granted and the facility will go into operation.”

It is unclear when the appeals board would make its ruling or when the zoning hearing board would rehear arguments.