Packer Township in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, Stands Up for Community Rights
It was in 2007 that Tamaqua Borough Council Member Cathy Miorelli informed Tom Gerhart, Chair of the Packer Township Board of Supervisors, that 33 truckloads of New Jersey sewage sludge were dumped on a field about 75 yards from the Still Creek reservoir, which lies in Packer Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The reservoir is the source of drinking water for Tamaqua and other communities. She took her story to the local papers, caught the state Department of Environmental Protection in an attempted cover-up, and then she explained to the Packer Township Supervisors how she had worked to pass two community rights ordinances in Tamaqua. She suggested Packer do likewise, and put the local officials in touch with the Legal Defense Fund.
On June 11, 2008, the Packer Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance banning corporations from land-applying sewage sludge. Nearby East Brunswick Township in Schuylkill County was already in court, defending its nearly identical sludge ordinance against the state’s attorney general (AG), Thomas Corbett, who was suing the Township on behalf of sludge haulers, under authority delegated to him in the 2005 “ACRE” law. Through that law, the legislature has prohibited local governments from regulating “normal agricultural operations” and empowers the attorney general to sue those municipalities. By forcing the AG to dispute the rights framing of the ordinance, the Legal Defense Fund drew this startling statement from the AG’s office in Commonwealth Court: “There is no inalienable right to local self-government.” It was the gaff heard across the Commonwealth.
Meanwhile in Packer Township, it took twelve days for the AG to notify the Supervisors that his office would be “reviewing” their ordinance as a possible law suit target. Then on August 21st the Supervisors sent a note to the AG, informing him that the Township was preparing to amend its ordinance to declare in law that the municipality would no longer recognize the authority of the attorney general’s office to enforce any law that denied the right to local self-government for the protection of the health, safety and welfare of the community. And on October 14, 2008 they did just that.
In the meantime, the Board of Supervisors got a call from the Attorney General’s team. They wanted to meet privately with the Supervisors to negotiate changes in the ordinance. Gerhart commented publicly that “We will not meet behind closed doors. We don’t want to do anything behind the backs of our residents. We are standing our ground and we will take our chances. You can either complain or you step forward and take charge and do something about it."
CELDF had offered to represent the Township at no cost if the ordinance were challenged. In August of 2009, the attorney general filed suit in Commonwealth Court, claiming that Packer’s ordinance violates Pennsylvania’s “ACRE” law. The lawsuit against Packer is one of about a dozen lawsuits filed by the Attorney General’s office against ordinances adopted by rural Pennsylvania communities. As of this writing, the suit is still active. Here’s the latest news on that front…
On March 17th, 2010 the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania denied the attorney general’s motion for declarative relief in which he requested that the Court overturn the ordinance. Although the three judge panel let the ordinance proceed to trial they did overturn the amendment denying the authority of the AG. The case now moves toward trial, in which the Township and the attorney general will contest whether the land application of sludge is a “normal” practice, and whether it constitutes a direct threat to human health and safety.
Then, on May 4th, 2010, the Board of Supervisors for Packer Township voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance that enables the municipality to enact and enforce environmental protection standards exceeding those set by the state legislature.
The new Ordinance asserts that the “passage of laws overriding local zoning and land use planning through the Municipalities Planning Code, laws preempting local control over water withdrawals, laws prohibiting communities from regulating or controlling genetically modified seeds and crops, laws eliminating local control over agricultural operations, and laws eliminating local control over the land application of sewage sludge, have violated the right of Packer Township residents to govern their own community. The people of Packer Township declare that the building of a sustainable Packer Township requires not only the outright nullification of the doctrine of preemption when it prohibits the people of Packer Township from adopting higher standards than those set forth in state law, but also requires the people of Packer Township to refuse to recognize the authority of the Attorney General or the courts, when those entities attempt to enforce the legislature’s illegitimate acts.”
The struggle for community rights continues in Packer Township and across the land.
