Fed Judge Overturns Grant Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells
The radical leftist PA-based group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) does its best to trick townships into passing illegal bans. In 2013 the CELDF fooled Highland Township in Elk County, PA into passing a ban on wastewater injection wells. They also tricked Grant Township in Indiana County, PA to do the same thing. Both towns are in court defending their illegal actions. One of the idiotic legal tactics used by the CELDF in both cases is to claim that an ecosystem is a "person" under the law--a person who can file to join the town's lawsuit in an effort to protect itself (see It Speaks! An “Ecosystem” has Filed to Join a Lawsuit in PA). It's an asinine notion. Will the tree in my front yard sue me for cutting a branch off it? Will my gravel driveway sue me if I decide to pave it? Get real. A federal judge has just ruled in the Grant Twp case and found (a) the town's ban on injection wells is illegal, and (b) the ecosystem's "interests" have been well-represented by the town in the case with no need for the ecosystem to join the lawsuit. The judge, in sidestepping whether or not an ecosystem is actually a person, kind of laughed at the notion--if you read between the lines...
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