Times Observer file photo Back in 2017, Siri Lawson of Farmington Township challenged a township decision to use bring — or oil and gas wastewater — on the dirt roads of the township as a dust suppressant.

A local issue that brought state-wide change is now getting national attention.

Back in 2017, Siri Lawson of Farmington Township challenged a township decision to use brine — or oil and gas wastewater — on the dirt roads of the township as a dust suppressant.

The end result of that challenge was a still-in-place state-wide moratorium on brine spreading.

That issue was highlighted in a recent edition of Rolling Stone, an article that included an interview with Lawson.

“In the summer of 2017, Siri Lawson noticed a group of Amish girls walking down the side of a dirt road near the horse farm where she lives with her husband in Farmington Township, Pennsylvania. The girls, dressed in aprons and blue bonnets, had taken off their shoes and were walking barefoot,” the report states. “Lawson was horrified. She knew the road had been freshly laced with brine.”

Rolling Stone quoted Lawson’s 2017 appeal where she said “For nearly 10 days, especially when I got near the road, I reacted with excruciating eye, nose, and lung burning. My tongue swelled to the point my teeth left indentations. My sinus reacted with a profound overgrowth of polyps, actually preventing nose breathing.”

Here’s what Rolling Stone included in the article from an interview with Lawson.

“The oil-and-gas industry has ‘found a legal way to dispose of waste,’ says Lawson, 65, who worked as a horse trainer but is no longer able to ride professionally because of her illnesses. Sitting in her dining room, surrounded by pictures she has taken to document the contamination — brine running down the side of a road, an Amish woman lifting her dress to avoid being sprayed — she tells me the brine is spread regularly on roads that about cornfields, cow pastures, and trees tapped for maple syrup sold at a local farmer’s market.”

Where the brine issue will ultimately settle remains unclear.

The state Department of Environmental Protection recently said the moratorium remains in place and legislative solutions have yet to prove successful. Language that would have permitted brine spreading in a recent oil and gas bill was approved by the state Senate but struck in the state House.