Anti-fracking Activists Petition Ohio Legislators
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Just as one hydraulic fracturing operation was getting under way at a well site in Trumbull County, seven activists from the Mahoning Valley were en route to Columbus to petition state legislators to shut down a similar operation in Mahoning County.
"It's time we hold our legislators accountable," said Susie Beiersdorfer, a member of Frack Free Mahoning Valley. Beiersdorfer and six others from the area traveled to Columbus Wednesday to protest the presence and the hydraulic fracturing of an oil and gas well owned by Consol Energy in the watershed of the Meander Reservoir.
"I don’t think we're being served by the people we elect," she said.
Meantime, teams of workers were to start the hydraulic fracturing process of a well in Hartford Township owned by Halcon Energy, a company spokesman confirmed Wednesday. The Halcon well, located on Hayes-Orangeville Road, was drilled earlier this year.
About 100 activists from across Ohio attended the rally on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse protesting the oil and gas industry's use of hydraulic fracturing, a process that injects water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to break up shale formations deep below the earth.
Last week, members of Frack Free Mahoning Valley claimed during a meeting of the Board of Mahoning County Commissioners that a well casing failed at the Consol well in October, posing a threat to the environment.
Consol spokeswoman Lynn Seay subsequently responded in a statement that on Oct. 12, the company performed a well casing integrity test at the MAHN7 well in North Jackson. During the testing, the top joint of the well casing failed "and the situation was immediately remediated per the directive of the ODNR."
She added that the "ODNR was satisfied with this remediation step and did not require any further testing. There were no environmental impacts related to this event, which occurred at the ground surface."
Seay noted that Consol has experienced no other incidents in Mahoning County.
On Wednesday the Mahoning Valley activists visited the offices of State Reps. Robert Hagan, D-Youngstown, Ron Gerberry, D-Austintown, Sean O'Brien, D-Brookfield, and Tom Letson, D-Warren. They also went to the offices of state Sens. Joe Schiavoni, D-Canfield, and Capri Cafaro, a Democrat from Hubbard.
Beiersdorfer said they spoke with Schiavoni, Gerberry and Hagan, all of whom took the information on the Consol well. She related that Gerberry told them that there was little legislators could do, since the oil and gas industry is governed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The group wants to prevent the Consol well from being hydraulically fractured and have called for the well to be permanently shut down. The well is scheduled to be "fracked" this month.
Schiavoni said he had an already scheduled a meeting with ODNR and was prepared to bring up the group's concerns over the Consol well.
Hagan said he told the group that while companies need to be held accountable for their actions, activists must also come prepared with facts and science, and not pure emotions.
"I think we can drill safely horizontally, but there are still questions left unanswered," Hagan said.
He agreed with members that local communities should have more control over the industry. As it stands, the state has the final say in oil and gas regulations.
On Tuesday, Hagan introduced a bill in the state House of Representatives that would increase the penalty for the improper disposal of fracking waste.
The bill follows the federal indictment last week of Ben Lupo, the owner of D&L Energy Inc., who has admitted to ordering employees of another company he owned to illegally dump wastewater into a storm drain that flows into a tributary of the Mahoning River.
House Bill 93 serves as a companion to Senate Bill 46 -- a measure co-sponsored by Schiavoni -- and would raise the level of the offense from a misdemeanor to a felony. The penalty would consist of a minimum of three years in prison and a $10,000 fine for anyone who willingly violates the law.
"It's a shot across the bow," Hagan said. "We have to make sure they know that they have an obligation to protect the environment."
The local group then joined the activists gathered on the steps of the Statehouse for the rally. Shortly after the rally ended around 2:30, Beiersdorfer and a handful of other activists entered the Vern Riffe Government Center, where they had an appointment with a staff member of Gov. John Kasich.
"We held the meeting in the elevator lobby," Beiersdorfer said. She added that the staff member reiterated the state's position that Ohio has some of the toughest regulations on the oil and gas industry in the country, and accepted a packet of material the small group gave him.
"We'll see," Beiersdorfer said. "This is a system we have to work through. We just want people to become engaged with the government that's elected to serve us."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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