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From left, Marietta City Council President Susan Vessels listens to Councilman Jon Grimm discuss Resolution 79 during a special meeting Tuesday. The resolution is meant to establish an Injection Well Task Force Committee as an ad hoc advisory group under the Water, Sewer & Sanitation Committee. (Photo by Gwen Sour)<\/p>\n
Marietta City Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday to advance the second reading of a resolution to form an ad hoc task force to study injection wells, while sparring continued over whether the committee could delay potential legal action against state regulators.<\/p>\n
Resolution 79, which would create the \u201cInjection Well Task Force Committee\u201d under council\u2019s Water, Sewer & Sanitation Committee until Dec. 31, received its second reading during the special meeting. The panel would include up to seven members appointed by the Water, Sewer & Sanitation chair.<\/p>\n
Council members discussed whether the committee\u2019s work and a separate resolution, No. 80, authorizing the law director to challenge the Ohio Department of Natural Resources\u2019 issuance of a Class II injection well permit to DeepRock Disposal Solutions for the Stephan No. 1 well, should advance at the same time. The potential mandamus action would seek to have the well regulated under newer rules that reduce the amount of material that could be injected daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see a reason why 79 and 80 can\u2019t run concurrently,\u201d said Councilman Jon Grimm. \u201cCouncil should be fully informed as fully as possible when they make that decision. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some members pushed for a stricter timeline. Councilwoman Erin O\u2019Neill, who was absent from Tuesday\u2019s meeting, proposed that the task force be ratified within 15 days of passage, hold its first meeting within 21 days, and deliver an initial report within 60 days. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer timeline was spot on,\u201d Grimm said. \u201cIt is very doable and does show a sense of urgency. I would recommend that we amend this to reflect Ms. O\u2019Neill\u2019s timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Class II wells are underground injection wells are designed to dispose of fluids brought to the surface during oil and natural gas drilling, the most common being brine, or salt water, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency<\/p>\n
If approved, the well is proposed to be drilled within two miles of the well field for the city\u2019s drinking water.<\/p>\n
Some at the meeting suggested adding a request for a moratorium on injection wells to the legislation. Councilman Mike Scales said he would introduce a standalone measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext Thursday night, one way or another, I\u2019m bringing a moratorium in. I\u2019m asking for the suspension of the second and third reading,\u201d he said. \u201cI will support the suspension of the second and third reading of Resolution 80, and I\u2019ll bring up the vote for Resolution 79 \u2014 up or down, one way or another. It\u2019s over and done with. The public wants an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council President Susan Vessels criticized Resolution 79 in an email read into the record, calling Section 4 a stall tactic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf gathering information were (Councilman Ben Rutherford\u2019s) true purpose, he would not have included Section 4, which would prevent the city from filing mandamus action against ODNR until after all reputable information is gathered by the ad hoc committee and a report was filed. \u2026 The clear purpose of this special meeting is to get Resolution 79 readings ahead of Resolution 80.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Rutherford responded directly to criticisms about delays and obstruction. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all get so involved in our own maneuvering and politics in any corner,\u201d he said. \u201cA clear mind would probably look back and say, well, I don\u2019t think\u2026. I tried to start this in July, and we probably could have been completed by September. So I guess the question really becomes, where has the obstruction truly been? Where is that objectively? It\u2019s weird how we see things, and I guess it\u2019s just not being seen straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grimm said he spoke with ODNR\u2019s chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management on Sept. 12 and was told the DeepRock permit was a reissue under older rules, but that \u201cthe operating \u2026 would be under the new rule.\u201d <\/p>\n
Grimm said he asked for written confirmation but had not received a response.<\/p>\n
Citizens shared their concerns regarding the injection wells.<\/p>\n
Resident Jessica Archer warned against forming a committee that could slow action. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is very strong support to shut down (the) injection wells in this county,\u201d she said. \u201cIf this committee were to go forward, it really needs to be detached and separate from our efforts to shut down the injection wells. \u2026 I worry about ending up with bad science based on the timeline that is available. What we\u2019re talking about is a very complex, long-term study \u2026 not something that can be done cheap (or) fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran driller Bob Lane said he has experienced direct damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a no-brainer,\u201d Lane said. \u201cThey\u2019ve had these problems all over the United States, where they put disposal. \u2026 It has cost me over a million dollar,s the damage that this has done to my oil and gas production. \u2026 The level of radiation in this water is three times what you\u2019re allowed to transport on the highway. There is no way known to man to take radiation out of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gwen Sour can be reached at gsour@newsandsentinel.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left, Marietta City Council President Susan Vessels listens to Councilman Jon Grimm discuss Resolution 79 during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129,3786,3785],"class_list":["post-4123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-second-reading-for-marietta-city-council-injection-well-committee-resolution","tag-znewsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}