As a result of an agreement in Warren County court Wednesday, a private-public entity and its former project manager are going separate ways.
James Christensen was enjoined from claiming he is working on behalf of Northwest Energy Resource Group (NERG), Kinzua Development Associates (KDA), and Pennsylvania Alliance for Cooperative Innovation (PACI) and from sharing information and contacting investors regarding a project of those groups.
Judge Maureen Skerda met with attorneys representing defendant Christensen and plaintiffs PACI, KDA, and NERG, in chambers as the parties had negotiated an agreement. Skerda approved that agreement and imposed an injunction.
Tim King is listed as the vice president of PACI, manager of KDA, and manager of NERG.
According to court documents, Christensen was appointed in February to be the project manager for a KDA project that would create a "water and frac flowback treatment facility... in Pennsylvania" for shallow well oil and gas development operations. NERG was formed by KDA to move forward with investments for the project.
The facility would reduce the "total dissolved solids" in the water from about 100,000 mg per liter to 500 mg per liter or less prior to being discharged to a publicly owned treatment works or sold to oil and gas operators for reuse, according to a proposal included in the court documents.
There was no indication where the facility would be located or into what publicly owned treatment works the fluid would be discharged to. When asked for comment, King advised only to refer to the court documents.
In the petition for injunction, the plaintiffs said Christensen had entered into a non-disclosure agreements with PACI in January.
The document states that Christensen "removed himself from the project" on May 2.
On May 6, according to the document, Christensen was "designated as an information conduit to certain project investors..."
"Defendant has continued to have meetings with investors, members and other parties without the presence or knowledge of plaintiffs... caused other investors and members to violate their individual contractual responsibilities..." according to the petition.
"Various investors have informed plaintiffs that they will be moving forward with the project without plaintiffs with the assistance and advisement of defendant," according to the document.
According to Skerda's order, Christensen may not solicit proposals nor share information related to the project; may not contact (the confidential list of) investors or contacts of the project... regarding any water and frac flow back water treatment facility; may not represent himself as manager of NERG; and may not represent himself as a representative of KDA.