A couple of recent decisions by two Trumbull County commissioners may not stop the opening of an already-constructed injection well on property east of Route 7, south of Brookfield schools, but Brookfield Trustee Dan Suttles said he appreciates they are willing to try.

“I’m glad they’re on our side,” Suttles said.

Select Water Solutions has applied to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to open the injection well on the property of Joseph Hray, officials said. An injection well sends liquid waste, most notably the chemical-laden water used in fracking for natural gas wells, deep underground.

For Suttles it’s a matter of public safety, especially when a school is nearby.

“I am against injection wells,” he said.” They’re gonna pump this high-pressure liquid underneath our citizens when they’re sleeping. It scares me as a trustee. I take the safety of our citizens at heart.”

Suttles asked the commissioners to restrict access to the property by disallowing the use of McMullen Drive, a county-owned, dirt road that connects to Route 7.

Commissioners Niki Frenchko and Mauro Cantalamessa obliged, resulting in a letter dated Aug. 16 from county Assistant Prosecutor William Danso to Hray. The letter “serves as your notice that you, your agents, or any others at your direction must cease the use of this private county-owned access drive,” the letter said.

A separate issue came up with the proposed construction of a MARCS radio tower on county-owned property next to Hray’s. MARCS is a state emergency-radio network. Brookfield Fire Department and Ohio Highway Patrol use the MARCS system, and Brookfield Police Department is heading that way. However, there are areas of Masury and elsewhere on the east side of the county where the MARCS signal does not reach. MARCS wants to build a tower along Route 7 that is supposed to eliminate these dead spots. The county and MARCS are splitting the cost to build the tower.

Officials have been working with Ohio Edison to extend electrical service from Route 7 to the MARCS tower location, but so has Select Water, which needs to run power to the injection well. Auditor Martha Yoder and Tim Haniford, the county’s director of IT information, presented two options at the commissioners’ Aug. 28 meeting.

In one option, the county and MARCS would split the $35,000 cost. The second option would cost only $30,000 and be split between the county, MARCS and Select Water. Some planning work already has been done on the second option and construction would begin sooner. In either option, the power poles would be built along McMullen.

Frenchko made a motion to go with the more expensive option and Cantalamessa agreed.  Commissioner Denny Malloy abstained from voting on this issue, and did not support the cease-and-desist letter.

Cantalamessa has said repeatedly that he is against any more injection wells, citing “biological” and “health concerns” and issues with the water table.

“For me, it comes down to protecting the county’s property,” Frenchko said, most notably, McMullen, which could be damaged by repeated heavy truck use.

Malloy said, “I don’t like out-of-state waste coming into my county,” a reference to fracking waste being trucked from Pennsylvania, where it cannot legally be disposed of in an injection well.

But, the actions of his colleagues are using the power of government to “discriminate” against a taxpayer, he said.

“As government, as county commissioners, I don’t think we should go out of our way to inflict our personal views on a citizen and use the power of government to stop a citizen from the American way, from expressing capitalism,” Malloy said.

Haniford said construction of the electrical extension likely won’t begin until November.

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