FrackFree Billboards Tout Community Bill of Rights
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A group opposed to oil and gas exploration in the city and in the watershed of Meander Reservoir is launching a billboard campaign to support passage of a Community Bill of Rights, a measure on the May 7 ballot.
"We drink the water from Meander Reservoir. We do not want fracking in our protected drinking water area," declared Lynn Anderson as she stood before one of two billboards that urge city residents to vote "yes" on the ballot initiative.
The billboards, which in large print declare, "Clean Water, Clean Air, Clean Jobs" over a photograph of the landmark "Cinderella" bridge in Mill Creek Park, are at the corner of Dewey and South avenues, and on Meridian Road near the Interstate 680 interchange.
Anderson said the group, FrackFree Mahoning Valley, raised enough money through small donations to display the billboards.
Since 2011, giant energy companies have stepped up exploration in the Utica shale and use hydraulic fracturing to release gas and oil from the rock strata after they're drilled a well.
Environmental activists across the country oppose this method because the process involves injecting water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth at high pressure. These chemicals, they contend, can contaminate the soil, aquifers and nearby water reservoirs and leave open the potential for environmental harm.
"We have to protect ourselves," Anderson said.
In particular, she pointed to a well in North Jackson owned by CNX, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy, that is close to Meander Reservoir.
"When the well casing split open when they were doing high-pressure drilling, they didn't bother to inform any officials,” she asserted. “They didn't inform the public. They didn't inform the MVSD [Mahoning Valley Sanitary District]. This is why we have to vote yes on the Community Bill of Rights."
Consol Energy has said that it immediately informed the Ohio Department of Natural Resources about a split in the well casing when it occurred in October. The problem was corrected, and ODNR representatives inspected the well site and determined that it was safe.
The bill was placed on the ballot after FrackFree obtained more than the required 2,836 signatures to put the measure up for a vote. City Council then voted to place the bill on the ballot as a charter amendment.
The initiative would prohibit hydraulic fracturing within city limits and in areas deemed a threat to the city's drinking water.
Last week, Alan Wenger, a mineral rights attorney for Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell Ltd., posted on the law firm's website a Q&A informational guide city lawmakers asked him to prepare. The document details the shortcomings of the proposed charter amendment.
Wenger said that the amendment would hurt landowners, provide no protection to the environment and outlaw many activities that support oil and gas exploration.
Moreover, Wenger argued, the charter amendment could not be enforced since jurisdiction over oil and gas development falls under the purview of the state of Ohio, not municipalities or counties.
"It would spoil a golden economic opportunity for our community and offer nothing in the way of environmental protection because it could not be enforced," Wenger said.
Tom Cvetkovich, a supporter of the charter amendment, noted that he believes Wenger brings up some strong points, but thinks those points are limited. "We address all of those," he said, referring to a point-by-point rebuttal members of his group wrote to Wenger's arguments. "From his perspective, he's identified some things, and from our perspective, we've identified many more things.
"He [Wenger] encourages us to go through channels," Cvetkovich continued. "We have gone through channels. We have gone to Columbus. We have talked to every committee. We have done all those things."
This charter amendment is not about regulating the industry to make it better, Cvetkovich said, but a "statement to keep it out of our area."
At its core, Anderson said, the charter amendment isn't a case involving the oil and gas industry, but a civil rights issue.
"It's absolutely enforceable," Anderson asserted. "The industry is trying to cast doubt on it. This is defensible all the way through the Ohio Supreme Court, all the way to the United States Supreme Court, because it's written as civil rights law."
The bill was researched and written by Jim Callen of Northeast Ohio Legal Services so that it would protect drinking water, populated areas of the city and Mill Creek Park, Anderson noted.
Pat McCrudden, a resident of Wethersfield Township, said she came out to support the initiative because Halcon Energy has an oil derrick 350 feet from where she lives.
"This water in Meander is my water also," she stated. "They're getting ready to frack. I want to prevent what's going on in my place from ever happening in the Youngstown area. It's terrible."
EDITOR'S NOTE: The anti-fracking activists provided The Business Journal with what it titled "An answer to Alan D. Wenger's polemical and paratisan Q&A regarding the proposed Youngstown Charter Amendment." If an when this document is posted by the group online, we will post a link, just as we did with Wenger's document.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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