A packed County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning
had the board haggling with local activists over the language of a resolution
proposed for the body to take an official stance on the controversial local
fracking issue.
A revised version of the resolution presented to the
commissioners removed language calling for a moratorium on the horizontal
hydraulic fracturing oil and gas drilling technique.
The resolution does still include provisions that would
establish a local strategic advisory board, support legislation currently under
consideration in U.S. Congress, and calls for various points of oversight and
regulation from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
One member of the group, Heather Cantino of Athens,
addressed previous comments by commissioners expressing the importance of
protecting private property rights.
"This probably amounts to a maximum of 5 percent of
the population who will actually benefit financially," she said. "So that's several
thousand people out of 65,000. So we'd like to discuss the property rights of
those who are not choosing to lease. Because of course they are affected by
leasing."
Another county resident who attended the meeting,
Alex Couladis, later stressed the importance of respecting the rights of
property owners who do choose to lease their mineral rights, stating that the
amount of land leased in the county could come in around 50 percent. (Couladis
himself has leased more than 680 acres in Lodi, Alexander and Athens townships
for oil drilling.)
Some fracking opponents interrupted Couladis during
his comments, pointing out that the percentage of county residents agreeing to
oil and gas leases is much smaller than the percentage of land that's involved.
Reacting to the interruptions, Commissioner Larry
Payne said that he would leave the discussion unless all residents were given a
fair opportunity to share their opinions.
Getting into the details of the proposed resolution,
the county commissioners have been seeking a consensus among themselves, with
members expressing their wishes to move forward as a body united instead of
divided.
At one point, county Commissioner Lenny Eliason cited
the partisan divisions in Washington, D.C., and Columbus as damaging, and expressed
the desire of the board of commissioners to move forward united.
The resolution leads off by stressing interests such
as ensuring property values and quality of water, land and air in Athens
County. It goes on to support "strong regulation" of deep shale drilling
activity.
A supporter of the proposal explained why it's
important. "I believe everything that is in this proposal is something that
benefits everyone in the county, whether you're leasing your land or whether
you're not; whether you're just a resident who doesn't have mineral rights,"
county resident Al Blazevicius said. "This is all in the interest of protecting
the water quality, air and land."
The resolution calls for establishing a baseline in
county water supplies by testing for various chemicals involved in the fracking
process before the initiation of fracking activities. It also establishes a
"strategic advisory committee" consisting of the commissioners' president, the
Athens County engineer or a designee, and the Athens County sheriff or a
designee. Commissioner Payne suggested at the meeting that a representative
from the oil and gas industry be included as well.
The resolution would have the commissioners calling
upon the U.S. Congress to pass both the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness
of Chemicals Act (FRAC Act) and the Bringing Reductions to Energy's Airborne
Toxic Health Effects Act (BREATHE Act).
Payne said that he supports the FRAC Act but he has
concerns about the BREATHE Act. "I some issues with the BREATHE Act," Payne said.
"I don't support that."
He complained that the legislation can regulate a low
volume of activity, perhaps as small as one gas well, which could create
problems for individual property owners not involved in the horizontal
fracturing business. Traditional vertical oil and gas wells also can use
hydraulic fracturing to access the resources, though the effects are not as
widespread or the production as substantial.
"There's a difference between protecting one car and
20,000 cars," Payne said, pointing to small farms that may have a single
vertical well on their property. "Or one well versus 20,000 wells."
Finally the resolution makes a number of suggestions
to the ODNR, which has sole oil and gas drilling regulatory authority in the
state. Counties and cities can't regulate either drilling or disposal wells for
drilling wastewater.
The resolution calls for increasing the number of
state inspectors to match the increase in drilling activity; investigating
state soil and rock stability prior to drilling; requiring full disclosure of
activity and drilling waste management; prohibiting venting and flaring in
favor of vapor recovery systems; regulating the use of public water in
operations; increasing setback requirements; and increasing the severance tax
to pay for county-level remediation, among other things. (Gov. John Kasich
recently proposed levying severance taxes, and hiking other taxes, for oil and
gas development in Ohio.)
Toward the end of the meeting, Cantino reiterated her
point that the economic benefits of fracking operations aren't enjoyed by the
majority of the local population.
"It's not coming to people anymore. It's not coming
to the counties. It's not coming to the cities," she said. "Corporations are
making a lot of money. There is a lot of money going to be made if the wells
are productive. And that money should come back to the county, to the people,
to protect our water."
She urged the county commissioners to be active and
creative in finding ways for the county to bring back funds to protect the
environment.
As for consensus, Cantino said that it's the duty of
the commissioners to speak up and protect the county. "If you don't have
consensus, I think it is still possible to take a stand," she said.
Eliason acknowledged Cantino's point.
"I appreciate that, but remember that effectiveness
comes from consensus," he said. "Effectiveness doesn't come from split or
divisiveness. And as you've talked about before, this is trying to be a unified
document. So if it's going to be a unified document, it should be a consensus
document."
County Commissioners Eliason and Mark Sullivan are
Democrats, whereas Payne is a Republican.
