HONESDALE, PA — Saying they believed the ongoing six-year de facto moratorium against gas fracking development in the Delaware River Basin usurped local and county home-rule over land use, the Wayne County Commissioners on December 7 agreed to enter the federal court lawsuit of the Wayne Land & Mineral Group (WL&MG) LLC against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC).

The WL&MG reportedly owns 76 acres of land, a portion of which abuts the river and would be developed by the owners for gas drilling.

Based on water withdrawal volume and concerns about pollution issues, the DRBC ruled its authority to review these gas projects in 2009, and instituted a “hold” on any permits a year later, pending completion of regulations to administer permitting. There has been no subsequent action by the interstate agency.

Commissioner Wendell Kay explained that affected governments have asked to provide information to the court. He said the county would enter the suit as “a friend of the court,” or amicus curiae. While Wayne would take no active role in the lawsuit on either side, Kay said the county does agree that the DRBC position does intrude on local prerogatives. “We feel there is a conflict,” he said.

Commissioner and soon-to-be state legislator Jonathan Fritz said, “We’ve been waiting for six years. Now we’re hoping this action will prompt a re-action. They’ve been sitting on their hands for six year while we’ve been deprived of economic opportunity. They should act or get out of the way.”

The DRBC has declined comment on the lawsuit. Its website states, “Preparing natural gas regulations are extremely complex, and the stakes for the larger region are high… It is vital to the future of the entire region for the commission to strike the appropriate balance between the use of the region’s water resources for one purpose, natural gas exploration and production, and competing uses of the same water resources for drinking water supply and to meet other human, economic and ecological needs.”

In other business, the commissioners appointed Kuni Holbert and Mark Davis to three-year terms on the county planning commission; approved a $118,196 contract for Pictometry International to update 2011 county digital aerial photography; and approved a final filing of the county’s $408,642 application for 2016 Community Development Block Grant funding and two state grant applications to fund $137,500 in paving costs at the Hawley and Hamlin senior citizen centers.