Trumbull engineer’s office plans injection-well summit

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

warren

Many local officials in Trumbull County have fielded complaints from the public about truck traffic and other concerns regarding brine-injection wells that serve the gas and oil industry here.

The county engineer’s office, as the lead local agency that works with injection-well owners and drilling companies, likewise has fielded lots of questions from local officials, said County Engineer Randy Smith.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the county engineer’s office is inviting township and school officials, legislators, the public and a local gas-and-oil attorney to talk about the things the public can do to address these concerns.

Dominic Marchese, Johnston Township trustee, for instance, is concerned that the county has become the “dumping ground” for Pennsylvania brine waste. He believes Ohio laws benefit the gas and oil industry and give no protection to rural landowners near brine-injection wells.

Furthermore, because only eastern Ohio counties such as Trumbull have brine-injection wells, legislators in other parts of Ohio don’t care that injection wells could harm residential water supplies and roads. Marchese would like Ohio law to restrict injection wells to industrial areas that have a municipal water supply and industrial roads.

Trumbull County does appear to have the largest number of brine-injection wells in the state (17) and most likely receives the largest amount of Pennsylvania brine waste of any county in Ohio, said Jack Simon of the county engineer’s office.

But there are limits to what local officials can do to limit well drillers and brine-injection companies because the Ohio Department of Natural Resources regulates the industry, Simon said.

For instance, only one appeal to ODNR has ever put a halt to a gas well or injection well in the state. That appeal involved a gas well in North Royalton that was proposed by a company with a poor safety record, Simon said.

Atty. Thomas G. Carey of the Harrington, Hoppe and Mitchell law firm will present information about Ohio laws regulating the gas and injection industries at sessions at 11 a.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Thursday.

Both meetings will be in the county commissioners meeting room, fifth floor of the county administration building, 160 High St. NW.

Carey’s firm wrote the contract between BP America and 1,900 mineral-rights owners in Trumbull County in 2012 that paid the landowners $3,900 per acre and promised royalties of 17.5 percent of mineral values. The landowners organization was called the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley, or ALOV.

Smith said by helping officials understand the history and way the industry is regulated, his office can help officials target their efforts in the areas that have the greatest potential for success.