Commission asked to OK fracking road protections

Athens County Engineer Archie Stanley has asked the county commissioners to consider an agreement that would protect area roadways if substantial shale oil development comes to our area, as appears likely.

On Tuesday, members from Stanley's office are slated to go over the newly developed road agreement with the Athens County Commission.

A release from Stanley states that the agreement has been OKed by county Prosecutor Keller Blackburn.

"I have asked the commissioners for a meeting this Tuesday to request they approve for my department's use a new road agreement that has been signed off on by Keller Blackburn," Stanley wrote in a fax. "We reviewed the draft agreement a while back and recommended it to the commissioners for our use."

Stanley said that the agreement will formalize a process for his office to use as a strategy for protecting county roads and bridges from heavy trucks and equipment used to build and service horizontal hydraulic fracturing wells. The agreement also outlines the process for obtaining immediate repairs for any damages by the haulers, Stanley wrote.

"Heavy trucks and equipment have the potential to severely damage our roads and bridges," he said in the fax. "This new agreement will add a valuable tool to the ways we can protect our roads and bridges. It will mean saving a lot of taxpayer money and protecting our residents and travelers."

The Ohio Department of Transportation has been working on a model agreement for a payment plan for any damage that may result from hydraulic fracturing work. In addition, Ohio Gov. John Kasich proposed severance taxes on oil and gas developers to help reimburse local governments for road and bridge expenses related to fracking.

Stanley has lauded the model agreement, though he did not make it clear in his fax how much that model has been used for the proposed agreement his office is taking to the commissioners. Stanley did say previously that the ODOT pan was being reviewed by Blackburn.

Stanley said at the time that he supports such a plan being adopted not just in Athens County but regionally as well.

"Enforcement is always better when the counties being affected are united," he wrote in an email.

When it comes to drilling companies, Stanley said his office takes a "cooperative approach backed by action as may become necessary."

He said that all the traveling public, including logging, mining, and oil and gas company trucks, must obey posted bridge load limits.

"Our bridges are formally inspected at least annually and rated according to state and federal guidelines as to their load rating, and the limits are approved and journalized by the Board of Athens County Commissioners," he said. "We have been asked many times but never do we allow waivers from these posted weight limits. The posted weight limit represents our best analysis of what load the bridge will safely withstand."

Before any logging, mining or other potentially heavy use of county roads begins, Stanley said his office videotapes the entire road.

"We go and meet with the company (or companies) and obtain their agreement to repair cooperatively any damages done," he said. "We have this type of cooperative meeting as soon as paperwork is filed for the mining or other operation."

Stanley is facing a Democratic primary challenge from local engineer Jeff Maiden, who also has stressed the importance of protecting local roadways from damage.

Maiden has said that if roads are torn up by an operation, he will do everything within his power legally to ensure that they are fixed.

"Anything we do as a result of decaying infrastructure or a new service that's needed, whatever it is, our first job is to find the problem," he said.