Vienna trustee seeks commissioners' support to pressure ODNR for Kleese explanation

WARREN

Vienna Township Trustee Phil Pegg asked the Trumbull County commissioners today for their support in his effort to have the Ohio Department of Natural Resources fully explain what caused the spill of 2,000 gallons of oil last month in Vienna.

The commissioners expressed support, saying they too are concerned about Trumbull County having possibly the highest number of brine-waste injection facilities in the state but getting nothing in return for the headaches they cause.

“We were elected to protect the people, but it hurts that the state has hamstrung us from doing that,” Commissioner Frank Fuda said.

“We’re concerned that so much brine is out there,” Commissioner Dan Polivka said.

The Kleese Development Associates injection facility on Sodom Hutchings Road leaked more than 2,000 gallons of “light waste oil” into the streams, ponds and wetlands near the facility.

Pegg said many of the holding tanks and the cement pad under them have been removed, and other changes are being made at the site, but he wants other changes before he’ll be comfortable with the facility reopening.

“How do you lose 2,000 gallons of any fluid?” he asked, noting that under Ohio law, the ODNR has complete responsibility for policing the gas-extraction and brine-disposal industries with local officials having no control.

“The experts [at ODNR] obviously failed us in Trumbull County,” Pegg said.

Read more of the story in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.