Pennsylvania Judge Sanctions Attorneys Over Wastewater Disposal Well Arguments
On Jan. 5, 2018, a federal judge passed down a $52,000 sanction on the attorneys representing a small Indiana County community in Pennsylvania that is attempting to stop the operation of an oil and gas wastewater disposal well in Grant Township.
The sanctioned fee accounts for more than 10% of the total costs and fees Pennsylvania General Energy took on after attempting to defend itself from the ban on such disposal wells put forth in 2014 through a community bill of rights.
The attorneys work through the Community Environmental Legal Defense, which has represented in court several communities attempting to combat different industrial companies or organizations against their adverse environmental effects.
In a statement, the legal defense fund claimed the decision demonstrated that “corporate forces once again have been able to wield our institutions of government to punish those working to elevate the rights of communities over fossil fuel coroporations.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, who doled out the sanction, has put Mr. Linzey in the position for even further potential punishment, referring him to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board.