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Hopefully plan will keep reservoirs safe

Dear Editor,

At the Barnesville Village Council meeting on Monday, Feb. 6, congratulations were shared between Village Council and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency representative Steve Saines about the completion of Barnesville’s Source Water Protection Plan.

As a member of Concerned Barnesville Area Residents, I want to thank the Village Council for including wording in the SWPP expressing the preference that Ohio Department of Natural Resources deny well permits within 1,000 feet of the reservoirs. This is welcome, though short of CBAR’s preferred request to keep shale wells outside the watersheds.

In any case, since the SWPP is non-binding, well pad placement was always going to end up as a choice by Gulfport and/or ODNR whether to honor the concerns of area residents by keeping shale well pads outside the watershed. Until we hear definitively about Gulfport’s and ODNR’s decisions in this matter, I won’t know whether the SWPP will prove a major step in protecting our water or mostly a public relations show.

John M. Morgan

Beallsville

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