Plain Township residents want total ban on Fracking

FROM: The Canton Repository - CantonRep.com staff report - July 27th

PLAIN TWP. — About 70 residents urged Plain trustees to declare a complete ban on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing within the township.

Ohio legislators are forcing residents to accept heavy industry in their backyards, said Susan Garver, who lives in the Sherwood Village allotment.

“I think this is the right time to act. We can’t drag our feet any more,” Garver said, urging trustees to ban horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

Residents commended trustees for banning “horizontal slick water hydraulic fracturing” on township property, but  want the procedure stopped throughout the township.

Trustee Louis P. Giavasis said he believes trustees have started in the right direction. “If a drilling company wants to drill, they have to figure out how to get under our roads,” he said.

But Giavasis — who again voiced opposition to horizontal drilling — said he’s not convinced a total ban can be issued.

Oil and natural gas drilling in Ohio is monitored by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and local governments have no authority once a drilling permit is issued.

If the township issued and tried to enforce a ban, it could face legal action, said Eric Williams, the township’s lawyer. “It could be hundreds of thousands of you taxpayer dollars” spent in a court battle, he said.

Several residents countered that the township should spend money to keep drilling companies out, instead of waiting and finding out that money must be spent to fix damaged residential water supplies.

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.cantonrep.com/stark/plain/x1704350084/Plain-Township-residents-want-total-ban-on-fracking