The injection well on the east side of Route 7, south of Brookfield schools, can be seen along with a water tower and the abandoned buildings of the former county home. This photo was taken from the Trumbull County auditor’s website.
Brookfield trustees cannot stop an injection well from opening or operating in the township but have continued their quest to make it as difficult as they can for that to happen.
The trustees adopted a resolution at their March 3 meeting opposing injection wells, which are used to dispose of waste water generated by the gas and oil drilling industry. Pressure is used to inject waste into porous rock thousands of feet below the surface. The water contains chemicals and cancer-causing agents, Suttles said.
Trumbull County Commissioner Tony Bernard suggested the trustees formalize their opposition with a resolution.
The resolution says the trustees have responsibility “to ensure the interest and safety of the residents are represented.” It also says injection wells can cause earthquakes and “create fractures, cracks in the surrounding rock formations that can potentially lead to migration of harmful contaminants into the groundwater and surrounding wells for drinking water sources.”
“There’s a lot of debate on it and probably one of the biggest issues is the township doesn’t receive any funding for whatever they put down in the well,” said Trustee Mark Ferrara. “The state receives it all. We have all the liability and the state makes the money.”
“Those things shouldn’t be anywhere near a hospital, a rest home, a school, anywhere with high-density population. Period,” said Brookfield resident Steve Shull. “Common sense.”
The trustees have been fighting for months to stop the opening of an already-drilled well that exists on former county home property on the east side of Route 7, south of the Brookfield school campus. Joseph Hray owns the property and has agreed to lease it to Select Water Solutions.
However, a recent real estate transaction has those who oppose injection wells concerned. Highland Field Services, which built wells on the west side of Route 7 north of Wyngate Manor mobile home park, has sold the property to SWS Holdings LLC for $1.7 million.
“Somebody didn’t buy property in Brookfield Township for $1.7 million to sit on it,” Suttles said. “Something’s gonna happen there.”
The prospect of resuming injection at the wells there, which hasn’t been done since 2019, does not sit well with Jim Hennessy of Merwin Chase Road or Gloria Douglas, who lives in Wyngate. They were outspoken opposers of the Highland Field wells before they were drilled.
“This is terrible,” Douglas said. “How could this happen again?”
Hennessy has been on the phone trying to talk to whoever he can to express his opposition.
Meanwhile, Hray and Select Water appeared at the Feb. 5 county commissioners’ meeting to ask for the commissioner’s cooperation. Justin Moore, a director for Select Water Solutions, asked the commissioners for a utility easement on county-owned property to get three-phase electric power to the injection well site. The company also has offered to pave McMullen Road, a county-owned, non-maintained road, and maintain it.
Moore said he “appreciates” the health and safety concerns expressed by Suttles, who attended the commissioners’ meeting, but he pushed back on the concerns about earthquakes.
“The ODNR has done a very good job to address the earthquakes that happened back in 2011,” Moore said of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which regulates drilling and injection wells. “That’s been mitigated. Injection wells have been operating a long time in the area with seismic monitoring so that citizens should never feel an earthquake that’s induced.”
Select Water has spent about $500,000 installing sensitive seismic arrays in the area, he said.
Hray pushed back on concerns about contaminating groundwater
“This has nothing to do with groundwater,” he said. “It’s 9,000 feet deep. It’s not gonna affect anything there.”
Hray touted the integrity of Select Water.
“Every place they’ve been, they did everything top-notch. I felt comfortable entering an agreement with them … knowing they would do it and would do it right.”
Commissioner Denny Malloy said the commissioners could run Select Water’s proposal by the prosecutor.
“I just think we have to look at all the options and make sure the residents are protected out there,” Bernard said.
