Vienna official says request for legal help with injection well denied

Staff report

VIENNA

Trustee Phil Pegg announced after Thursday’s township trustee meeting that township officials tried Thursday to get help from the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office to stop Kleese Development Associates from opening another injection well in the township.

But prosecutors said they cannot file an injunction to stop the well because the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has jurisdiction, not local officials, Pegg said.

The company, whose five injection wells off Sodom Hutchings Road have been closed since early April because of an oil spill that fouled ponds, streams and wetlands to the east of the injection site, has made preparations to open a sixth injection well off state Route 193 just south of Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

Pegg said he believes the company may be close to drilling the well, and he’d like to stop it because of what happened on Sodom Hutchings.

One thing that may stop it, he said, is a requirement that the company get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to erect a drilling rig. FAA approval is required because the rig will be such a short distance from the airport, Pegg said.

Meanwhile, Pegg said he continues to get little information from state officials to explain what caused the spill on Sodom Hutchings, even though that site appears to be close to reopening. He said it appears that way because holding tanks and other parts of the facility have been put back in place.

An ODNR spokesman has told Pegg he cannot release information on the spill because the investigation of the spill is “ongoing.”