A settlement has been reached in the civil rights suit filed by the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition over surveillance of the group as a potential terrorist threat.
Notice of the settlement was filed Friday with U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson in Harrisburg, but the terms were not disclosed by attorneys in the suit, dating back more than four years.
Dr. Al Rodriguez, president of GDAC, said Sunday the group will hold press conferences later in the week to discuss the notice.
“Right now we can’t give any statement,” he said.
In status reports to the court, attorney Paul Rossi, representing the GDAC, and Deputy Attorney General Lindsey Bierzonski indicated the agreement covered injunctive relief and payment of attorney’s fees.
The grass-roots group advocates for regulation of the natural gas drilling industry that has expanded into areas of Northeastern Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracturing or fracking, the high pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals, is applied to free and extract the natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation.
Watch list
The suit arose from the GDAC’s placement on a watch list by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response Foundation, contracted by the state to report potential terrorist threats against critical infrastructure. The group’s activities were included in Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletins distributed by the institute to law enforcement, stakeholders in the natural gas drilling.
Word of the group’s inclusion in the bulletins surfaced in September 2010, when former director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Homeland Security James Powers Jr. mistakenly sent a copy to someone who passed it on to Virginia Cody of Factoryville, who supports drilling regulation. Cody posted the bulletin online and sent it to media outlets. Then Gov. Ed Rendell learned of the contract and cancelled it. He apologized to the groups included in the bulletins.
In the suit, the GDAC said its “conduct has, at all times, been lawful and peaceful” and its speech and right to associate are protected under the First and 14th Amendments and the state constitution.
Since the filing the ITRR Foundation and its president Michael Perelman were dismissed. Ronald C. Stanko, who succeeded Powers, and Robert P. French of PEMA remained as defendants.
