YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Activists concerned about the impact and consequences of
oil and gas operations in the Mahoning Valley say their rights as citizens have
been stripped from them, and demand that local communities be given the power to
regulate an industry that they say has grown all too powerful.
"It's about health, safety and welfare," said Doug Shields, a former president of Pittsburgh City Council who successfully led the charge to ban drilling within that city's limits in 2010. "In Pennsylvania, like Ohio, you have no zoning authority anymore and when an operation wants to come into a residential area, they do."
Shields spoke to a crowd of about 30 Wednesday afternoon at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, where the group was shown an 18-minute film, The Sky is Pink, by Josh Fox, who also produced Gasland, a scathing examination of the use of hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry.
The group then marched to the steps of Stambaugh Auditorium and then to City Hall.
The event coincided with similar protests in several states across the country as part of "Freedom From Toxic Frack Waste: National Rally Day," organized by Frackfree America National Coalition and the Network for Oil & Gas Accountability & Protection.
Shields said the oil and gas industry is the only industry exempt from local zoning laws, which grants it an unfair advantage over other businesses. "How can that be?" he questioned.
He added that communities find it difficult to plan ahead as long as the oil and gas industry dangles incentives and bonus payments before landowners and local governments, which see a windfall of money in return for leasing their land.
Moreover, Shields said local governments have ignored the potential health risks and hazards that the industry poses.
"No one's looked at the health, welfare and safety issues, or the diversion of assets," that a community would require such as firefighter training to support a single industry, he said.
Shields said he was able to convince Pittsburgh City Council to ban drilling simply because he was able to present a solid case based on factual evidence.
"We brought science, law and industry before the council and at the end of the day, the council's assessment was that this is not safe," he said.
Oil and gas companies use a process called hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to crack open tightly packed shale rock that holds trapped natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," calls for injecting water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to break apart the shale and unleash the gas. The wastewater is contaminated, and is often stored in injection wells across the state of Ohio.
An injection well in Youngstown was tied to a series of earthquakes in the Mahoning Valley last year.
Shields emphasized his concerns that these chemicals -- some of them known carcinogens -- used in the fracking process can migrate through cement casings in the well shaft and poison water supplies.
"What happens to my water in my well, for other uses such as recreation? What happens to my health?" Shields said. "There are no answers for this." "This is something that has a profound lasting effect to everything in our community. Why would we not want to do our due diligence?" he asked.
Liberty Towsnhip Trustee Jodi Stoyak said that she's tried to pass a measure, to no avail, that would call for the township to investigate how it could attain more control over the oil and gas industry and drilling activity there.
"They tabled it," she said. "They didn't want to have anything to do with it." Stoyak also attempted to put a similar measure before the Ohio Township Association, but that, too was squelched when the local township association refused to endorse it.
"I don't know that they're all educated on this," she said. "My immediate concern is that we have no local control."
Ohio Rep. Robert Hagan, D-60 Youngstown, said in a statement that the national protest demonstrates a high-level of concern related to hydraulic fracturing and the threat it poses to the environment. "Today, in Youngstown and all across the country, people concerned about the dangers of fracking and injection wells are coming together to stand up to the big-money oil and gas industry," he said.
Hagan has supported a moratorium on new injection wells throughout the state, and contends that the oil and gas industry hasn't come clean on disclosing what chemicals are used to "frack" wells.
"This call-to-action day is an opportunity for the public to put pressure on and demand answers from these companies that have so far shown blatant disregard for anything other than their bottom line," Hagan said.
Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said in a statement that new Ohio regulations afford citizens adequate protection, and that opposition to the oil and gas industry is "misguided." "Looking at the facts shows that over the last two years, the Utica shale development has helped attract more than $1 billion in investments and about 1,500 new jobs in just the shale supply chains in the Mahoning Valley," Humphries said.
This development has proceeded without a single environmental incident related to hydraulic fracturing, a process that has been used in the drilling industry since the 1940s, Humphries continued. In the case of the brine injection wells, the state has shut down those wells suspected of causing problems and has strengthened regulations to protect the public, he added.
"I think protesting this responsible activity is misguided and does a disservice to the many people in our Valley who have obtained jobs or hope to obtain jobs related to shale development," Humphries said.
"I understand people have concerns," added Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Institute. "But, in Ohio we're operating under the strictest regulations in the country."
Fleming said that while he was in town last week for the second-annual Youngstown Ohio Utica and Natural Gas conference and expo, he noticed a substantially different atmosphere in the community compared to five or six years ago.
"I saw a totally different Mahoning Valley," he said. "You could just feel the excitement."
Many of those opposed to hydraulic fracturing and drilling are passing on information that isn't factual, and use fear as a means to get their message across, Fleming stated. Despite vocal protests, he believes the overwhelming majority of residents in the Mahoning Valley are largely in favor of what the oil and gas industry is doing.
"As in any industry, there are risks," he noted. But new companies and jobs moving into the Valley also provide a sense of stability and optimism that the region hasn't experienced in decades.
"The good far, far outweighs the risks involved," Fleming said. "If you give people the straight facts and let them decide for themselves, the majority will be quite comfortable [with] what we're doing in Ohio."
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
"It's about health, safety and welfare," said Doug Shields, a former president of Pittsburgh City Council who successfully led the charge to ban drilling within that city's limits in 2010. "In Pennsylvania, like Ohio, you have no zoning authority anymore and when an operation wants to come into a residential area, they do."
Shields spoke to a crowd of about 30 Wednesday afternoon at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, where the group was shown an 18-minute film, The Sky is Pink, by Josh Fox, who also produced Gasland, a scathing examination of the use of hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry.
The group then marched to the steps of Stambaugh Auditorium and then to City Hall.
The event coincided with similar protests in several states across the country as part of "Freedom From Toxic Frack Waste: National Rally Day," organized by Frackfree America National Coalition and the Network for Oil & Gas Accountability & Protection.
Shields said the oil and gas industry is the only industry exempt from local zoning laws, which grants it an unfair advantage over other businesses. "How can that be?" he questioned.
He added that communities find it difficult to plan ahead as long as the oil and gas industry dangles incentives and bonus payments before landowners and local governments, which see a windfall of money in return for leasing their land.
Moreover, Shields said local governments have ignored the potential health risks and hazards that the industry poses.
"No one's looked at the health, welfare and safety issues, or the diversion of assets," that a community would require such as firefighter training to support a single industry, he said.
Shields said he was able to convince Pittsburgh City Council to ban drilling simply because he was able to present a solid case based on factual evidence.
"We brought science, law and industry before the council and at the end of the day, the council's assessment was that this is not safe," he said.
Oil and gas companies use a process called hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to crack open tightly packed shale rock that holds trapped natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," calls for injecting water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to break apart the shale and unleash the gas. The wastewater is contaminated, and is often stored in injection wells across the state of Ohio.
An injection well in Youngstown was tied to a series of earthquakes in the Mahoning Valley last year.
Shields emphasized his concerns that these chemicals -- some of them known carcinogens -- used in the fracking process can migrate through cement casings in the well shaft and poison water supplies.
"What happens to my water in my well, for other uses such as recreation? What happens to my health?" Shields said. "There are no answers for this." "This is something that has a profound lasting effect to everything in our community. Why would we not want to do our due diligence?" he asked.
Liberty Towsnhip Trustee Jodi Stoyak said that she's tried to pass a measure, to no avail, that would call for the township to investigate how it could attain more control over the oil and gas industry and drilling activity there.
"They tabled it," she said. "They didn't want to have anything to do with it." Stoyak also attempted to put a similar measure before the Ohio Township Association, but that, too was squelched when the local township association refused to endorse it.
"I don't know that they're all educated on this," she said. "My immediate concern is that we have no local control."
Ohio Rep. Robert Hagan, D-60 Youngstown, said in a statement that the national protest demonstrates a high-level of concern related to hydraulic fracturing and the threat it poses to the environment. "Today, in Youngstown and all across the country, people concerned about the dangers of fracking and injection wells are coming together to stand up to the big-money oil and gas industry," he said.
Hagan has supported a moratorium on new injection wells throughout the state, and contends that the oil and gas industry hasn't come clean on disclosing what chemicals are used to "frack" wells.
"This call-to-action day is an opportunity for the public to put pressure on and demand answers from these companies that have so far shown blatant disregard for anything other than their bottom line," Hagan said.
Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said in a statement that new Ohio regulations afford citizens adequate protection, and that opposition to the oil and gas industry is "misguided." "Looking at the facts shows that over the last two years, the Utica shale development has helped attract more than $1 billion in investments and about 1,500 new jobs in just the shale supply chains in the Mahoning Valley," Humphries said.
This development has proceeded without a single environmental incident related to hydraulic fracturing, a process that has been used in the drilling industry since the 1940s, Humphries continued. In the case of the brine injection wells, the state has shut down those wells suspected of causing problems and has strengthened regulations to protect the public, he added.
"I think protesting this responsible activity is misguided and does a disservice to the many people in our Valley who have obtained jobs or hope to obtain jobs related to shale development," Humphries said.
"I understand people have concerns," added Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Institute. "But, in Ohio we're operating under the strictest regulations in the country."
Fleming said that while he was in town last week for the second-annual Youngstown Ohio Utica and Natural Gas conference and expo, he noticed a substantially different atmosphere in the community compared to five or six years ago.
"I saw a totally different Mahoning Valley," he said. "You could just feel the excitement."
Many of those opposed to hydraulic fracturing and drilling are passing on information that isn't factual, and use fear as a means to get their message across, Fleming stated. Despite vocal protests, he believes the overwhelming majority of residents in the Mahoning Valley are largely in favor of what the oil and gas industry is doing.
"As in any industry, there are risks," he noted. But new companies and jobs moving into the Valley also provide a sense of stability and optimism that the region hasn't experienced in decades.
"The good far, far outweighs the risks involved," Fleming said. "If you give people the straight facts and let them decide for themselves, the majority will be quite comfortable [with] what we're doing in Ohio."
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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