For the second time in six months, an environmental group in Pennsylvania has made an appeal to the state’s Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) to challenge a permit issued to a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for a well in Lycoming County.

On Monday, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) filed an appeal over a decision by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to issue a general erosion and sediment control permit, as well as an authorization to conduct earth disturbance activities, to Anadarko E&P Onshore LLC.

At issue is development of Anadarko’s COP Tract 551 Pad A, located in McIntyre Township, in Lycoming County.

According to case records [No. 2014-117], PennFuture objects to the DEP issuing Anadarko the permits because it says the company’s Erosion and Sediment Control (E&S) and Post Construction Stormwater Management (PCSM) plans are insufficient. The group also says the general permit issued is inadequate and doesn’t give regulators enough time to make sure operators are complying with environmental laws.

Anadarko was awarded the general erosion and sediment control permit on May 27.

PennFuture filed its first appeal to the EHB over Anadarko’s plans at the same site in March, voicing similar concerns [No. 2014-24].

“After our [first] appeal, the DEP suspended Anadarko’s approval,” Mark Szybist, staff attorney for PennFuture, told NGI’s Shale Daily on Thursday. “Anadarko then submitted a revised application and DEP issued a new permit, which we appealed on Monday.

“We think that even though they addressed some of the issues that we raised in the previous appeal, there are still problems. And the problems go beyond the individual approval. We’ve challenged this general permit — that the DEP has issued just once, in 2012 — on the grounds that it’s just not an adequate or workable instrument for permitting these kinds of operations.”

DEP spokesman Dan Spadoni said the department had no comment, citing ongoing litigation. The EHB has not yet set a hearing date.