Groups protest near spill site

Staff/wire report

WARREN

A Maryland man faces two misdemeanor charges after chaining himself to a gate at a Northeast Ohio deep-injection well to block trucks carrying wastewater from oil and gas drilling.

Vienna Township police said 22-year-old Ron Shalom of Potomac, Md., was charged Monday with criminal trespassing and obstruction of official business at the Trumbull County well site between Warren and Youngstown. He was among 30 protesters from Frack Free Mahoning and Ohio Fracktion pushing for more-stringent testing and monitoring of brine wastewater.

Frack Free Mahoning’s Susie Beiersdorfer said environmental advocates want the state to launch its own testing program after a recent spill. A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, not the state, dictates how such wastewater is disposed.

The protesters from Ohio Fracktion and FrackFree Mahoning are demanding that the ODNR investigate the July 7 spill of more than 1,000 gallons of brine.

The groups protesting complained that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency tested the site only for pH level, which was in the neutral range. The neutral result meant the EPA was not overly concerned about the spill.

The EPA did not fine Energy Service Corp. of New Concord, which was hauling the brine when it spilled. The company was removing a 500-barrel tank from an injection well operated by Annarock Petroleum of Cortland. The tank that leaked was being removed from Annarock’s injection- well site.