Lehman drilling limits urged

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

LEHMAN TWP. – An attorney on Monday said a proposed ordinance that would essentially ban natural gas drilling in the township contains provisions that would require the township to secede from the state and the country if either government challenges it.

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Lehman Ordinance

Anti-drilling ordinance proposed for Lehman Township

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More than 100 residents packed the township supervisors meeting room Monday night to either support or oppose an ordinance proposed by the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, a local grassroots group opposed to gas drilling in the township and surrounding communities.

Supervisor Chairman Dave Sutton told the crowd at the start that there would be no vote on the ordinance because it would have to first go before the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board for approval.

Dr. Tom Jiunta, president of the coalition, outlined the provisions of the ordinance, which was dubbed the Lehman Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance.

It would ban any corporation from drilling in the township or extracting water for drilling within the township.

Jack Haley, solicitor for the township Zoning Hearing Board, said that upon reviewing the proposal, he believes it would certainly be challenged in court if adopted, and he believed the authors of the ordinance also expected such.

Haley said the ordinance forbids other levels of government from exercising powers to aid or assist anyone who deems the township’s laws to be in violation of the rights of others.

In order to do so, it provides that “any attempt to use other units or levels of government shall require the board of supervisors to hold public meetings that explore the adoption of other measures that expand local control” and that “such consideration may include actions to separate the municipality from the other levels of government.”

“In that regard, I must suggest that the proposal needs to be amended to include not only ‘separation,’ and read here ‘secession from the state of Pennsylvania and also from the United States of America,’ as the federal government is likely to take the same view as the state,” Haley said.

Jiunta said a virtually identical ordinance was adopted just last week in Licking Township in Clarion County.

The ordinance was written by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. A fund representative who attended the meeting spoke about the ordinance, said there are about 120 local ordinances in the state, some of which have been challenged, some of which folded.

Shireen Parsons, Pennsylvania Community organizer for the fund, said the fund would defend the township in court for free if it was adopted and some have been legally challenged.

“What you have here is not a fracking problem, it’s a democracy problem. Who gets to decide in the community of Lehman Township how safe your water is? … Is it the people who live here or is it a handful of corporate officers enabled and abetted by the state?” Parsons said.

Township resident Gary Ide, president of pro-drilling group Citizens for Cleaner Energy, said it would be wrong to assume that drilling contaminates drinking water, and that the form of government in the township has served it well.

Many residents offered their opinions on the drilling issue – some in favor of it, and most against it.