W. Penn water extraction ordinance still under review

West Penn Township remains on track to update its water extraction ordinance.

Resident David Lapinsky approached the township’s board of supervisors Monday morning to question the matter.

Lapinsky said the township’s Water Resource & Planning Steering Committee has been meeting the past several months.

He questioned why the supervisors got the ordinance before the township’s planning commission.

Lapinsky said the committee did research and helped put together an outline of all the information to take into account to create the ordinance.

The ordinance has been presented to both supervisors and the planning commission for their input on the draft.

From this point, the draft water extraction ordinance will go before the township’s planning commission, who will then made recommendations to the supervisors.

Board of supervisors Chairman Tony Prudenti said the board will then recommend that the township look to hire a water extraction lawyer to review the ordinance and make sure it falls within all the guidelines

Supervisors in September named nine people to the committee at the suggestion of Prudenti, who noted that water extraction has been a major issue and he wanted to update the township’s ordinance.

In June, Lapinsky asked supervisors to put a moratorium on water extraction in the community because he believes what’s taking place is not water harvesting, but rather, water extraction.

Prudenti said that was his recommendation on his very first day in office, but that a former board solicitor had left former board solicitor Holly Heintzelman a letter indicating that a moratorium would not be legal.

James Land Jr., president and owner of Ringgold Acquisition Group II LLC, previously noted that a settlement was recently reached between M.C. Resource Development Company and DEP on property known as Pine Valley, which has been a raw spring water source for bottled water plants.

In May, Prudenti said his solution to get truck traffic off the township’s roads was to negotiate a water extraction and road agreement with Land, and suggested that at Land’s expense, he run a pipeline out onto a state road.

Prudenti said the township was trying to update the township’s water extraction ordinance to try to make it a little bit tougher than it is right now.

As a starting point, Prudenti proposed they negotiate that the zone of influence be extended to a 1½-mile radius. The current DEP zone of influence is a quarter-mile, he said.

Prudenti also suggested constructing a pipeline to state roads for the loading of water into trucks, with the township helping procure rights of way if it is not able to use its own.

Additionally, Prudenti suggested a $10,000 yearly road maintenance and repair fee for each well site for roads affected by truck traffic.

Prudenti has said on multiple occasions that the township has to look at protecting residents’ wells, eliminating truck traffic and saving roads.