Anti-Drillers Lambast Loudonville Council for Selling Water to Cabot
From the Times Reporter:
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A dozen foes of the Cabot Gas & Oil drilling projects in the area assailed Mayor Steve Stricklen and members of Loudonville Village Council on their appearance of support for the company at the council meeting Monday.
The focal point of the comments was the village’s sale of water to the company, which is drilling a horizontal deep well in northern Green Township and which has sited two other projects, one at U.S. 30 and Ohio 511 in Vermillion Township and the other south of Jeromesville in Mohican Township.
Village Administrator Curt Young confirmed that to date the village has sold 650,000 gallons of water to Cabot, earning $4,358 in sales revenue. As with all water customers, Cabot is paying 0.65 cents per gallon of water, the highest amount the village will sell water for in its tiered billing process.
Asked by resident Dee Hinkle if the village could refuse sale of water to Cabot, Council Member Traci Cooper said “we can’t discriminate on who we sell water to. If we sell to one entity, we have to sell to all.”
The opponents to the drilling projects disagreed. “You could require a buyer to disclose how they will use the water, and refuse service for fracking projects,” Annette McCormick said.
“My fear is that they will take the waste from this water, which is contaminated by chemicals used in the fracking process, and pour it in to Charles Mill Lake,” Shelly Hootman of Jeromesville said.
Stricklen said “the village’s water supply would be monitored closely, and if the inventory gets critically low, we can halt sales, but it will have to be all sales.”Read the whole article by clicking here.
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