On March 22, 2019, Protect PT, with support from Fair Shake and Woods Law Offices, submitted an Amicus Brief to the PA Supreme Court in support of the Briggs’ family.
Tom Smith has lived by the Mahoning River his entire life, but it wasn’t until 2011, when his good friend invited him on a kayaking trip, that he had ever considered getting near the river a recreational activity. Today he is a member of the Freshwater Accountability Project (FWAP), our client, and the key standing witness in their successful case involving oil and gas waste polluting one section of the river he has never paddled.
Last year a study by researchers at Penn State found that a common practice in Ohio (and previously Pennsylvania) — the spreading of oil and gas wastewater on roads for ice and dust control — poses serious risks to human and environmental health. The study found that harmful pollutants contained in oil and gas wastewater (aka “brine”) spread on roads can leach into groundwater, surface waters, soils, and even become airborne, providing numerous pathways for human and environmental exposure.
On Jan 9, 2019 the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) ruled in favor of the Clean Air Council saying that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) broke the law when it issued Sunoco permits to build a Natural Gas Liquids facility at Marcus Hook. But what we, at Fair Shake, find most interesting is the language that they used in this decision, which sends a clear message: No more egg-slicer permitting.
