Breaking News: ODNR Revokes D&L's Well Permits
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has revoked all of D&L Energy Group's permits to operate brine water injection wells in the state. The owner of the company, Ben Lupo, was notified of the revocation Wednesday. According to D&L's spokesman, a statement will be issued later today.
Lupo has admitted that his Hard Rock Excavating company illegally dumped more than 20,000 gallons of brine water and drilling mud Jan. 31 into a storm sewer at the site of his companies, 2761 Salt Springs Road. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been supervising clean up at the site, and at the tributary that enters the Mahoning Valley.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, on his weekly call with reporters this morning, remarked that if the reports of the dumping are true they are "outrageous" and those involved "should be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law."
"It's practices like this that do give a bad name to the responsible businesses who are working hard to create jobs and to take advantage of this enormous opportunity we have in Ohio to bring back economic growth and manufacturing through using our natural resources in an environmentally sound way," Portman said. "Other companies are fully compliant with environmental standards and that's what this company should have been doing so something could have been done. The company could have complied with the standards."
The incident also underscores the need for full enforcement, Portman said, and he noted that Ohio has had regulations in place regarding oil and gas dating to the 1970s that recently have been "updated and refined." Those regulations are "pretty tough" relative to other states, but they give companies parameters that are needed and appropriate.
"I've been supportive of Ohio having good, strong regulations in place, and I think that can be helpful to our responsible development of these oil, gas and wet gas resources that have the potential to not just create hundreds of thousands of new jobs but bring back manufacturing to areas of our state that need it badly," Portman said.
More details will be reported as they become available.
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Authories Probe Frack Waste Dumping at D&L Site
Petitions Filed for Citizen's Bill of Fracking Rights
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.