Athens anti-fracking group wins battle in placing county charter, which would make the county a municipality, on ballot.
An Athens anti-fracking group won its battle last week to put an issue on the November 2015 ballot that could give the county more legislative power and a community bill of rights restricting certain activities of oil and gas companies within county limits.
If residents vote in favor of the measure, Athens County would have a charter form of government, meaning the county would be considered a municipality, as opposed to being governed by the state of Ohio, explained Nancy Pierce of the Bill of Rights Committee, the group heading the issue.
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She said that structure of government is permitted within Ohio laws and is simply an alternative to statutory government.
Pierce said she hopes enacting a charter government will give the county the ability to implement laws such as Title 47, an Athens City law that requires any operator of a drilling or injection waste disposal mechanism within city limits to pay a fee. The fee specifically goes toward tracing and monitoring the drilling or injection sites for contamination.
“That mechanism within the state of Ohio, that kind of protection of an area locally, is not preempted by state regulation,” Pierce said. “The state gives permits and they do their thing in terms of regulation.”
She does not have the same confidence in the issue’s goal to put a ban on injection wells, though, calling it further reaching in terms of the rights of localities. However, she has a staunch stance on her view against injection wells.
“We really want to act to protect our water supply in this county,” Pierce said. “These injection wells are going to migrate and contaminate the water. They’re not given any sort of protection. They drill through the water table; they don’t evaluate the geology around the injection wells.”
Athens county was No. 1 in the state for receiving injected frack waste throughout the first quarter of 2015, receiving 3 million barrels of toxic, radioactive waste in 2014 with more than 80 percent of the waste coming from out-of-state, according to a previous Post report.
Despite a previous rejection from the Athens County Board of Elections, Athens County Common Pleas Judge George McCarthy ruled that the board must put the group’s issue on the ballot.
The board of elections initially declared the issue invalid due to concerns on its enforceability, and those questions still remain.
Questions of enforceability will be addressed if the issue wins voter approval in November, Pierce said.
The court memorandum written by the petitioners for the Athens County charter criticizes the board’s initial actions, citing Ohio Rev. Code 307.94: “The BOE’s authority is limited to reviewing whether a petition — and not the proposed charter — meets the requirements of law and contains the sufficient number of signatures.”
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Pierce said the group feels the board overstepped authoritative boundaries in declaring the measure invalid.
However, Pierce said she believes the charter aspect of the issue will stand if it wins voter approval in November.
@Alisa_Warren
aw120713@ohio.edu
