Campaign group Friends of the Earth has lost a legal challenge over a fracking site in Lancashire.
The group had been challenging an environmental permit granted to fracking company Cuadrilla allowing it to drill for shale gas at its Preston New Road site.
The site is one of the first shale gas exploration sites to be allowed in the UK and has been the subject of various legal challenges since Cuadrilla first applied for planning permission in 2014.
In this challenge, at a hearing in November, lawyers for Friends of the Earth attacked the Environment Agency’s 2017 decision to grant a variation to Cuadrilla’s environmental permit for the site.
The variation changed the rate at which fracturing fluid can be injected into a well during the hydraulic fracking phase.
Friends of the Earth argued that the Environment Agency hadn’t properly considered the “best available techniques” for dealing with waste (or “flowback”) fluid from the site when granting the permit.
They said that, when considering the variation, the Agency was required to reconsider the original waste management plan.
However, in a ruling handed down today, Mr Justice Supperstone disagreed and dismissed the case.
He said that waste management plans have to be reviewed every five years, or when there are “substantial changes”.
In this case, the Agency considered the change and decided that it was not significant, the judge said.
To read a case summary of R (on the application of Friends of the Earth) v Environment Agency, click here.
To read a transcript of R (on the application of Friends of the Earth) v Environment Agency, click here.
Planning Court (Supperstone J) 11 January 2019
