Summary
In 2015, the people of Grant Township, Pennsylvania enacted a Home Rule Charter that declared all residents and natural communities and ecosystems within the Township (including, but not limited to, rivers, streams, and aquifers) “possess the right to clean air, water, and soil” and “the right to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.” (Section 104 and 106). This Home Rule Charter also banned the dumping of fracking waste, after Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) obtained a federal permit to inject fracking waste into an abandoned well within the town. Such waste is known to be radioactive and chemically toxic, and injection wells have also caused earthquakes. Community members feared that chemicals in the fracking waste would leach from the injection well into their private water wells, which are the community’s only source of drinking water.
In 2014, Grant Township adopted a Community Bill of Rights Ordinance that declared any permit for fracking injection in the town was invalid, and that corporations had no legal right to challenge the ordinance in court. The Ordinance also recognized Rights of Nature. PGE filed a lawsuit against the Ordinance, claiming it violated its rights guaranteed by federal and state laws and by the US constitution. The federal judge ruled against the town and overturned the 2014 Community Bill of Rights Ordinance. But, despite this victory, PGE did not begin to operate the injection well, as Grant Township’s Home Rule Charter Initiative had been enacted (along with ensuing lawsuits). In 2017, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) sued the Township, seeking to invalidate the Charter. In July 2022, a judge of the PA Commonwealth Court ruled that the Home Rule Charter violates PGE’s corporate constitutional rights, and is therefore unconstitutional, thereby nullifying Grant Township’s Home Rule Charter. Grant Township filed an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on August 11, 2022.
Still to this day, because of the continued efforts of the people of Grant Township and those who support them, there is no injection well, 9 years after PGE first applied for a permit.
Involved Organizations
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2026. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/grant-township-u-s-home-rule-charter-2015/.
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