West Penn Township officials continue to debate the township’s water extraction ordinance.

The West Penn Township Water Resource & Planning Steering Committee and planning commission met last week to discuss issues identified in water extraction attorney Jordan Yeager’s report.

Township engineer Bill Anders said township solicitor Paul J. Datte is trying to set up a meeting with Yeager to go over the report.

Board of supervisors Chairman Tony Prudenti said questions on the memorandum from Yeager need to be addressed.

“I just want to be sure we’re not setting ourselves up for lawsuits,” Prudenti said.

Prudenti said the board is looking for help in interpreting the water extraction ordinance.

Review of hydrogeologist comments

Ted Rosen, chairman of the water resource & planning steering committee, presented Yeager’s review of the hydrogeologist Philip Getty comments, which included:

• Yeager says “local governments have a role and a duty in local environmental protection.” The hydrogeologist says the Delaware River Basin Commission pre-empts the township.

• Getty outlines two ways for the township to classify water users; large, under 100K gallons per day, or Class I, small/single family homes, less than 1,000 gallons per day, Class II, moderately large consumers, or Class III, over 100K gallons per day, governed by the DRBC.

• Yeager recommends asking the hydrogeologist how he came up with 1,000 gallons per day as the threshold for a “small” homeowner, what are the assumptions, and are they defensible?

• The township should differentiate on whether water is returned to the watershed, or permanently removed.

• Getty recommends negotiating with each applicant on a case-by-case basis. The outside lawyer says spell out the details of all information required for every applicant, treat each applicant equally.

• Yeager recommends asking the hydrogeologist for standards for the hydrogeological impact evaluation, and to revise for West Penn Township geology.

• Getty says an extractor should be limited to the water beneath his property. Yeager lawyer says the origin of water is difficult to prove, more defensible if based on measurable data, not property lines.

Regulation

Prudenti said that when it comes to planning, his bible has always been the Municipal Planning Code.

“We cannot regulate how much water anyone can take out of the ground,” Prudenti said.

Planner Bob Miller said the issue shouldn’t be too complex.

“It seems to me it’s pretty darn simple,” Miller said. “Put a monitoring system in to see how much is coming out of those wells.”

Prudenti said the township’s existing water extraction ordinance hits on quite a few things, but not all.

“We can’t regulate where any trucks are allowed to go,” he said. “I also believe we have the right to say where we want to have these pump out stations.”

Jay Land, president and owner of Ringgold Acquisition Group II LLC, said he agreed with Prudenti’s assessment.

“What he just said, I would do,” Land said. “That would have the most significant positive impact.”

Prudenti added he believes it’s all about being able to protect surrounding wells, getting trucks off township roads, and get pump stations out onto state roads.”

Planning commission Chairman Dean Meiser asked what supervisors were looking for from the planning commission.

Prudenti said he believes the township should have its attorney, engineer, Yeager and Getty sit down with the proposed ordinance and come up with a draft.

Miller noted that they can tweak the ordinance.

“It’s like a football game where the ball keeps getting passed back and forth,” he said. “Somewhere we’ve got to drive the stake into the ground.”

Ultimately, planners recommended that Anders meet with Datte, the water extraction attorney, and the hydrogeologist to review the proposed draft ordinance and come up with a final draft ordinance that would be turned back over to the planners and then the board of supervisors.