Vienna spill exposes gap in Ohio’s drilling rules

Nine months ago, about 10,000 gallons of a petroleum derivative spilled from injection-well holding tanks in Vienna Township, killing wildlife, fouling vegetation and rousing fear and worry among scores of residents’ along and near its path.

Nine months later, a criminal investigation led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues, and the holding tanks remain idled. Nonetheless, the spill from tanks operated by Kleese Development Associates on Sodom Hutchings Road remains troubling on several fronts.

The spill is troubling for its immediate pollution and defilement of nearby wetlands, streams and ponds. It is troubling for the unknown potential long-term environmental impact on properties and lives in the immediate area. And it is troubling that a preliminary investigative report from the EPA suggests that KDA intentionally chose not to report the spill immediately and that the probable cause of the spill itself is suspected as “negligence” by KDA.

While further investigation continues into these and other irksome issues, the spill clearly exposes a glaring weakness and inconsistency in Ohio law and regulations governing the oil and natural-gas drilling industry in the state. It’s an inconsistency that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources should take the lead in eliminating as soon as possible.

SUSPECTED CAUSE OF SPILL

Investigators believe that the lack of a properly constructed impermeable liner under the holding KDA tanks served as a primary catalyst for release of the grimy muck.

ODNR spokesman Eric Heis said that although Ohio does have rules on the books to ensure that companies building well pads for horizontal hydraulic- fracturing operations are constructed properly, such taut safeguards for injection wells are oddly absent.

Considering that injection wells pose many of the same environmental hazards to groundwater as fracking wells, similar strict regulations should also apply.

As Vindicator Trumbull County Staff Writer Ed Runyan reported recently, rules instituted last summer require ODNR Division of Oil and Gas engineers to inspect the construction of horizontal gas and oil well pads at every phase of construction, but that requirement does not apply to injection wells.

Had such a stern stipulation been in place last winter, perhaps the suspected problems with KDA’s protective liners could have been detected and fixed before the tanks went into operation and before the spill wreaked environmental havoc upon the township.

Though the slow-moving wheels of bureaucracy likely mean it will be some time before the feds’ criminal probe of KDA is complete, there is no reason not to act with all due speed and alacrity to follow up promptly on one clear lesson already learned from the spill.

There is no good reason to wait to revise ODNR rules to ensure that safety protocols for injection wells match the thoroughness and toughness as those that apply to fracking operations. The sooner they do, the less likely it will be for another spill from another errant injection well to spew out even greater threats to the environment and to public health.