Officials from 6 counties invited to injection well meeting in Warren

WARREN

The township trustees associations in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, along with Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka and county Engineer Randy Smith, have invited officials from six counties to a meeting next Wednesday to talk about trying to change the state’s injection-well laws.

The meeting will be from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Trumbull County commissioners meeting room, 160 High Street NW. It is open to the public.

Trumbull, Ashtabula, Mahoning, Stark, Portage, Meigs and Morrow counties have half of the injection wells in Ohio and need to band together to change laws that give too little protection to property owners and communities near the wells, said Johnston Township Trustee Dominic Marchese.

“Trumbull County is the leader in the state in waste,” Marchese said of brine-waste injection. “It’s not our waste. It’s not because of our [gas and oil] exploration. It’s people making money.”

Jack Simon, who handles matters related to oil and gas exploration and brine-waste injection for Trumbull County Engineer Randy Smith, said Trumbull County has 19 injection wells, the most in Ohio. Ashtabula and Stark counties have 18, and Portage has 16, he said.

Marchese is chairman of a committee of the Trumbull County Township Association that has worked several months to propose changes to Ohio law to require the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to notify property owners and government bodies within a half mile of proposed injection wells.

Read more about the concerns and the plan in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.