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OEPA Chief Addresses Issues at Chamber Event
BOARDMAN, Ohio – The director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said businesses and regulators need to work together in partnership to ensure that the emerging oil and gas industry will be viable for a long time and small businesses can invest here.
“It’s important that we don’t put bull's eyes on our foreheads when somebody does it incorrectly,” said Scott Nally, Ohio EPA director, who headlined a breakfast program Monday hosted by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s Government Affairs Council.
“As industry, you have to self-police," Nallly said. "I hate being put into a position where I have to overregulate. But if we’ve not clearly articulated the bar and there is that sense from the public that I’m not doing my job, then they’re going to force Washington, D.C., to force me to do my job, and right now we’re doing our jobs,” Nally said. That makes it important for industry and regulators “to make sure we do it right” and to get the message out that “we are watching.”
That response was reassuring to Chris Jaskiewicz, chief operating officer at VEC Inc., Girard, one of the panelists at the event. Many of VEC’s customers are concerned about whether they should make investments in the area or if there is a chance state environmental regulators “could shut this whole thing down,” Jaskiewicz reported.
“What we learned today is that they are not going to do that. They are in favor of oil and gas exploration and production,” he said.
Jaskiewicz was among the panelists, along with Warren Mayor Doug Franklin and Jerry Stoneburner, president of Buckeye Transfer Inc., Columbiana, who posed questions to Nally following his initial remarks.
As one of the first three state EPAs in the country, often the Ohio EPA’s rulemaking “leads the charge,” including on the oil and gas side, Nally said. “A lot of our team has been there, done that and bought that T-shirt,” he remarked.
In terms of oil and gas, “The only thing that is different today than what was happening over 100 years ago is ithe horizontal play,” he said. There have been more than 85,000 fracks in Ohio since 1848. “A lot of people use the F-word in vain. God love ’em but really we’ve been doing it for a long time,” Nally said.
Among the areas Ohio is ahead of other states on is chemical reporting, he said. Companies are required to report the percentages of chemicals to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources but not disclose that information to the public.
“My people do not need to know that level of detail,” he said. “Too much detail puts too much noise in the system.” In addition, he said OEPA is trying to stay ahead of the curve on air permits at well sites.
Nally also noted that the dumping of fracking chemicals into a storm drain on the property of D&L Energy in Youngstown was the fourth spill his team responded to that weekend. “We deal with this every day,” he said.
The administrator defended the protocols in place to notify local officials regarding such incidents. The first notification is to the local emergency planning commission but the point of contact -- often but not always the fire chief -- is different in each community. “I’m here to tell you the process is not broken,” he said.
Nally said he supports research into technology, such as recycling, that reduces reliance on water in fracking. “Technology in that space is definitely going to be different in two years than it is today,” he said.
Commenting on the upcoming charter amendment in Youngstown calling for local control over whether to permit fracking, “Obviously we consider that a state issue,” Nally said.
“Locals can do what they wish to do and we can hammer that out in court,” he remarked. “We’ve tried to make the playing field level across the state.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.