Gas driller denies causing fish kill

April 03, 2007 07:23 am

— PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP - - With 26 years of gas well drilling experience under his belt, Robert Barr Sr. believes he knows how to drill a gas well without hurting the environment.
After all, he's drilled more than 100 wells in Ashtabula County and 300 wells throughout the state.
Barr, president of Big Sky Energy, and his son, Robert Barr Jr., took some heat earlier this week when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and residents of Sleepy Hollow blamed excessive run-off from the Barr's nearby well sites for a fish kill in the community's lakes.
The Barrs drilled three gas wells this past winter on the property just east of Sleepy Hollow. A stream located on the project site and whether it's impacting the lakes with sediment-laden run-off is the cause of the turmoil.
"We did not cause that fish kill," Robert Barr Jr. said Thursday. "Big Sky goes above and beyond what it has to do. A shallow pond and a deep freeze caused those fish to die."
The Barrs on Thursday showed visitors silt pits and fences they've erected to catch the sediment from flowing into Sleepy Hollow's lakes.
The fences were put up Dec. 1, but recently have been redirected to better hold the mud, Robert Barr Sr. said, noting fresh straw also has been put down to hold the mud in place.
"We're trying to keep everybody happy," he said. "If Plymouth Township would have involved us, we would have done what they asked us to do."
Plymouth's zoning inspector, Wendy Flickenger, said Big Sky was not in violation of any of the township's zoning laws, but the residents were upset about their muddy lakes. In turn, she contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which has since taken photographs, as well as water and soil samples, to try to determine the cause of the fish kill.
However, Ohio EPA officials believe it's all too little too late.
On Feb. 1 and Feb. 22, Ed Wilk of the Ohio EPA investigated a complaint the agency received in January about these specific drilling sites. The EPA is required under Oho law to conduct a prompt inspection upon receipt of any alleged acts of polluted water.
During the February inspections, Wilk found the following violations:
- Soil had been disturbed at the site and discharged sediment was flowing into a tributary of Hubbard Creek;
- The original channel of the tributary of Hubbard Creek was impacted by fill materials; and
- No permits were obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Ohio EPA to authorize the impacts.
The Barrs were told to get appropriate permits, move the silt fencing and distribute bales of straw. The letter stating the corrective action was dated March 22 and sent to Robert Barr at Big Sky Energy.
Jim Irwin at the Ohio EPA said he believes mud from the drilling site ran into the stream and into the lakes and the (lake) water became so turbid that sunlight couldn't penetrate it.
"These fish basically suffocated in the ice cover," he said.
Robert Barr Sr. adamantly disagrees with the EPA's position, but he said he's a reasonable man.
"If the (ODNR) samples show we killed some fish and they tell us we will have to replace the fish, then we'll replace them," he said. "But nobody has told us that."

Photos

BOB BARR stands in front of retaining walls created along a natural gas drilling site on his Plymouth Township property. The Star Beacon