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Lt. Gov. Taylor addresses drilling issues
BOARDMAN
Despite the potential economic boom from shale drilling, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said the “first priority is to make sure we are doing what we can to protect the health and safety of the people and the environment.”
Taylor, a Republican, spoke Monday at a Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber luncheon at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman.
Toward the end of her prepared remarks, Taylor brought up shale drilling, a hot topic in the area after 11 earthquakes occurred in 10 months with their centers near a brine-injection well.
“We want to take advantage of an economic opportunity, but we can’t do it at the expense of our people and the environment,” Taylor told reporters after the speech.
Taylor encouraged people to attend a 5 p.m. Wednesday public meeting at the Covelli Centre community room to discuss geology and regulatory issues related to a shut-down brine-injection well on Youngstown’s West Side.
Scientists and regulators from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources will attend the meeting, Taylor said.
The meeting is organized by Youngstown City Council’s public safety committee, Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone and state Rep. Robert F. Hagan.
On Dec. 30, D&L Energy Group agreed to shut down a brine- injection well on Ohio Works Drive after discussions with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The epicenters of 10 earthquakes were near the well.
A day later, an 11th earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0, also with the epicenter near that well, led the state to order D&L to keep that well and four inactive wells, within a five-mile radius of the Ohio Works operation, shut indefinitely.
Officials at ODNR say there’s a “high likelihood” the well and the earthquakes are related, and are in no rush to reopen it.
ODNR is conducting a study on the well.
“We’re waiting to get back results from scientists studying this [to] tell us why [the earthquakes] happened and what could be done to prevent it,” Taylor said Monday.
Shale drilling is “not unlike any other new opportunity,” she said. “You have some uncertainty. That’s why you bring in professionals into the room and have a conversation on how do we regulate the industry without killing the job opportunities.”
A handful of protestors stood outside Mr. Anthony’s in opposition to shale drilling.
John Williams of Niles, one of the protesteess, said the moratorium in Youngstown is “a start,” but “it shouldn’t have taken a 4.0 earthquake to shake everybody up.”
D&L is injecting brine, a fracking byproduct, into the ground, and not fracking at that well.
Fracking is a process in which water, chemicals and sand are blasted into rocks thousands of feet underground to extract natural gas and oil.
Injection wells use the fluid left over from fracking and inject it deep into the ground for disposal.
Responding to a question from the media, Taylor said she “probably” wouldn’t make an endorsement in the Republican presidential campaign adding “at this point, I don’t see a need to endorse.”
Taylor said Mitt Romney “seems to be gaining steam” in his bid.
“My goal, obviously, is to get our candidate chosen, and I will work hard to make sure our candidate is successful,” she said. “We have to change the direction Washington is going and part of getting there is getting a president that’s the type of president who wants real solutions for our country.”