Julia Furhman Davis (left) and Patti Gorcheff have started a grassroots effort to establish home rule in Beaver Township. They are standing in Julia’s garden. (Karen Schiely /Akron Beacon Journal)
COLUMBUS —”Mansfield voters will decide this November if they want to join a growing movement among Ohio cities trying to block injection wells that store waste from the controversial hydraulic fracturing process.
Using Ohio’s home-rule provision, Mansfield officials have placed ground-breaking language on the ballot designed to stop injection wells — aimed squarely at a pair planned by a Texas company — from being located in the Richland County city of 48,000.
The Texas company has plans — approved by state regulators in 2011 — to build two injection wells on 4.9 acres and ship in up to 82 tanker cars a week of oilfield waste via train.
Mansfield’s novel legal approach to fight back using the home-rule provision of the Ohio Constitution is part of a larger not-in-my-backyard sentiment that has been spreading across Ohio in recent weeks against new injection wells.”
— Aaron Marshall, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Communities seek ways to override state control of oil and gas drilling boom
— Bob Downing, Akron Beacon Journal
