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.
Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services filed an appeal, on behalf of its clients The Sierra Club, Earthworks, Center for Biological Diversity, and FreshWater Accountability Project, challenging a key permit for a massive proposed plastics facility known as an “ethane cracker” in Belmont County. The plant is part of the industry’s push to steeply increase U.S. plastic production.
