CLEARFIELD – Residents of Brady Township are encouraged to make their voices heard.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Clearfield County Commissioners encouraged residents to attend a public meeting regarding a proposed injection well in Brady Township.
The commissioners said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be holding the public comment meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening at the Brady Township Community building.
“I know a lot of residents feel very passionately about this project, so I encourage them to attend the meeting,” Commissioner John Sobel, chairman, said.
According to previously-published GANT News articles, the injection well is proposed to be a disposal site for wastewater from Marcellus Shale fracking.
Residents fear that such a well will fail and contaminate the water table and their household water supplies. Highland Street Extension residents depend on well water to supply their homes.
However, after several years, both the federal EPA and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have approved the well permit.
According to the articles, the EPA, Region 3, intends to issue a proposed permit modification under the authority of the federal Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulations to Windfall Oil and Gas Inc.
This modification would extend the terms of the current permit for a Class II-D (brine disposal) injection well, located in Brady Township, Clearfield County.
On July 31, 2015, the EPA issued a UIC permit to Windfall for its Class II-D disposal injection well for a term of five years. This permit will expire July 30, 2020.
On April 18, 2018, the agency received a request from Windfall to reissue the permit for a period of either five or 10 years because construction of the well hasn’t yet begun.
In this case, the EPA has found it would be appropriate to modify the permit and extend the term of the current permit for five additional years, so it will expire July 30, 2025.