Fish Commission charges Spencer in connection with 2019 flooding issues

Posted By: VenangoExtra.com July 2, 2021

By KARA O’NEIL

Staff writer

Cranberry Township junkyard owner Randy Spencer has been charged by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in connection with the July 2019 flooding that washed numerous vehicles, vehicle parts, oil, gas, and other fluids from Spencer’s property into Lower Two Mile Run and the Allegheny River.

A criminal complaint filed Thursday by the Fish and Boat Commission says that on July 19, 2019, property owned by Spencer, including RVs, campers, vehicles, and “like related products, by-products and/or component parts” stored near Lower Town Mile Run in a “floodway and/or floodplain” washed into the creek and the Allegheny River, causing a situation that is destructive to fish.

The storm, which dumped over four inches of rain in just a few hours in several parts of Venango County, sent Lower Two Mile Run over its banks along Deep Hollow Road near the intersection with Route 322.

Reports at the time said the debris from Spencer’s property at the corner of Deep Hollow and Route 322 was swept through large culverts and out into the river, where much of it was deposited along the river banks and onto mid-river islands.

Spencer has been charged by the Fish and Boat Commission with a misdemeanor count of pollution of waters-allow a substance deleterious, destructive, or poisonous to fish to flow.

In the two years since the flooding, Spencer’s junkyards have been the source of litigation filed by the state Department of Environmental Protection, Cranberry Township, and PennDOT.

The DEP directed Spencer in September 2019 to stop placing items in the floodway along Lower Two Mile Run and remove what materials were there.

In February 2021, Spencer was held in contempt of Commonwealth Court for failing to heed the order, and he was given until April 6 to remove the materials or face arrest and sentencing.

On March 24, 2021, Spencer’s appeals against litigation filed by Cranberry Township were rejected by state Commonwealth Court judges in Harrisburg.

Spencer had appealed an injunctive case and zoning enforcement actions filed by the township in 2019 in which his vehicles were cited as being a threat to the safety of other residents.

The March ruling upheld the earlier order of the Venango County Court of Common Pleas that Spencer must remove the junked vehicles and trailers from his property.

PennDOT action against Spencer came to a standstill after he was given until June 2020 to remove vehicles from the Deep Hollow location, which he failed to do.

At the beginning of May 2021, Spencer was given 60 days to remove all the junk from his junkyard along Deep Hollow Road near Route 322 in an order issued by Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler.

Ceisler also ordered Spencer to submit screening plans for his Garden Lane and Victory Heights sites to PennDOT by May 13.