Vienna trustees seek fed help to get lightning-suppression equipment at injection well

VIENNA — The Vienna Township trustees have sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown asking for his help in requiring an injection well in the township to have lightning-suppression equipment added.

The letter says such safeguards are important because lightning caused several oil tanks to explode at an injection facility in Whitesboro, Texas, in May 2015.

The letter says the trustees plan to ask the Federal Aviation Administration to review the new injection-well site on state Route 193. It is 800 feet south of a runway at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

The well is operated by KTCA of Oklahoma City, doing business as Cooper Ridge Disposal.

The trustees contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas asking for lightning suppression at the site, but “We were told there is no requirement due to this well being located in a rural area,” the trustees’ letter says.