Community wins fight against frack water plant in Hanover Township

HANOVER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Community members made passionate, angry pleas to keep a frack water plant out of their backyards in Hanover Township and won.

Public meetings had been packed the last few months with two women leading the fight.

"We found out as much as possible. We called everyone and anyone who would listen to us to get our point across how serious this was for our little town," said Dawn Paden.

Water, contaminated from hydraulic fracturing or fracking, has to go somewhere.  Hydro Recovery is a company that treats and recycles it.

The proposed site was off of Steubenville Pike, near the township playground, and directly behind Pam Chappell's house.

"They would only be 578 yards from my home, and there would be 150 to 200 trucks a day and one way in," said Chappell.

Paden and Chappell just met in January and led a fight that united an entire town.

"We are so relieved.  We hugged each other.  I can't believe we did this," they said.

Hydro Recovery withdrew its application and will be submitting a new one at an industrial site in town, which is what the women wanted.

"The gas companies are bringing a lot of money and growth to small towns,  It doesn't need to take away from us though.  Put it in the industrial park," said Paden.

Hydro Recovery said, in part, the new site solves the traffic concerns expressed at the public meeting.  Officials said their operations do not pose any abnormal threat to the public or environment.

WPXI