On February 10, 2020 Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services and Terris, Pravlik & Millian, LLP filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board on behalf of their clients, PennEnvironment and Sierra Club. The appeal challenges the issuance of a NPDES Permit authorizing PPG Industries’ ongoing discharge to the Allegheny River and Glade Run in Armstrong County.
This Notice of Appeal, available here, is the latest in ongoing work by PennEnvironment and Sierra Club to hold PPG accountable for the continuing contamination of stormwater and groundwater at PPG’s former waste site. For decades, solid waste stored on site has contaminated waters which ultimately emerge as seeps on the land surface and flow into the Allegheny River and Glade Run.
Although the Department has been aware of the unpermitted and untreated discharge of pollutants for decades, the Department never took action to compel PPG to obtain a NPDES permit that it should have obtained in the 1970s. In fact, PPG did not apply for the NPDES Permit until PennEnvironment and Sierra Club obtained a preliminary injunction from the federal district court in 2014 compelling it to do so. See below...
Ultimately, this appeal is intended to ensure that long over-due permitting incorporates sufficient notice for public participation, serious consideration of non-discharge alternatives, appropriate effluent limitations, and adequate monitoring requirements - all so that human health and the environment are protected.
