Protecting the Allegheny

Clara Township Injection Well - Current Status

Roulette Oil and Gas LLC was incorporated in 2011. This is a company whose owners have a track record of environmental violations and abandoned wells with the DEP.

Plans for the Clara Injection Well were announced in September 2020.

Roulette Oil and Gas LLC intended to convert an active gas well to a class ll-D injection well, for residual waste from oil and gas, potentially threatening contamination of local groundwater, which is part of the Upper Allegheny Watershed.

Residual waste is widely known to be radioactive and to contain heavy metals.

Although the DEP initially refused to allow comment, with the urging of all concerned a meeting was eventually held in Coudersport to allow public comment. The meeting was standing room only.

Township supervisors Steve Mehl and Bob Wylie, as well as residents and environmental advocates, voiced their concerns over potential contamination and asked that the DEP reject the application for the injection well permit.

On Thursday, September 14th it was announced that Roulette Oil and Gas was abandoning the permit and plans to convert the abandoned well in Clara Township into an injection well.

ACTION ALERT!!! Public comments on the Clara Twp injection well due by Tuesday August 8 and MUST BE MAILED.

The DEP has offered to accept comments in-person during the public hearing, by snail mail, and at the email address below.

UPDATE: The DEP has now offered an option to accept public comments by email at  
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

From the fact sheet:

• You may submit written objections or comments on the proposed action by mail, care of Susan Price, to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Northwest Oil and Gas District, 230 Chestnut Street, Meadville, PA, 16335.
• Anyone wishing to have their written objections or comments considered, and to receive notification of any final action by the DEP, must do so by close of business on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. According to Pennsylvania regulatory requirements, all written comments protesting or objecting to the proposed plan approval shall include the following:
1. Name, address and telephone number of the person filing the comment.
2. Identification of the proposed plan approval issuance being opposed (Clara Field #20).
3. Concise statement of the objections to the plan approval issuance and the relevant facts upon which the objections are based.
A public hearing to accept verbal comments has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, at the F.W. Gunzburger County Office Building Auditorium, 1 North Main Street, Coudersport, PA 16915.

More info here:
https://files.dep.state.pa.us/OilGas/BOGM/BOGMPortalFiles/Underground%20Injection%20Wells/Roulette/Roulette_Fact_Sheet_FINAL.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2Hm0cpA2Bh0KeZUJw09B5QqrRZi5hmTimhgkjcQXpsbn-_4KTduIx9GzI

Save The Allegheny is a regional environmental and citizen advocacy organization that formed in response to recent threats posed to the Allegheny River, clean drinking water, air quality, endangered species, wildlife and all of our natural resources.   This is a cause to restore our rights.

Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states...

"The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."

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