Youngstown Injection Wells Previously Shut Down Resume Operation
Book 'em, Danno!" Remember that phrase from the original Hawaii 5-0 television series that aired from 1968-1980? Jack Lord was great as Steve McGarrett. That's the image we immediately had when reading a story about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency executing a search warrant at a Vienna Township, OH brine injection well. The EPA was looking for evidence in an "environmental crime." We have to confess we find the whole concept of "environmental crime" somewhat silly. You have violations of regulations--sometimes egregious and yes, criminal. But we detect a shift by anti-drillers to move the debate into turning what are sometimes pure accidents, other times neglect, but rarely intentional activities into "crimes." The law-breaking Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Kathleen Kane, is famous for this. After taking office she targeted XTO Energy for what she says is a "crime" that happened several years before she took office. The "crime"? An accidental spill of wastewater. That's how these people operate. Salem witch hunt kind of attitude--they're frackers, burn them at the stake! Back to Vienna. The EPA in search of a crime worked with the OH Attorney General's office and the OH Bureau of Criminal Investigation to raid the injection well facility to find "evidence" of a crime after a recent spill at the facility...
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