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Marietta councilors spar over timing of injection-well resolutions at emergency meeting
Summary
At a Sept. 23 special meeting, councilors debated whether to advance a resolution creating an injection-well task force before moving a separate resolution that would allow the city to seek mandamus relief against ODNR over a permit for Deep Rock Disposal Solutions; public commenters urged scientific study and monitoring.
Marietta City Council met in a special session Sept. 23 to consider Resolution 79, which would create an ad hoc "injection well task force," and amid debate over whether that measure would delay a separate Resolution 80 that would allow the law director to pursue mandamus action against the Ohio Department of Natural Resources over a class 2 injection-well permit tied to Deep Rock Disposal Solutions.
The council president read the special-meeting notice and then read an email accusing Councilor Ben Rutherford of saying Resolution 79 would not affect progress on Resolution 80. "That was a lie," the council president said, adding that section 4 of Resolution 79 would prevent the city from filing mandamus action against ODNR until the ad hoc committee completed and filed a report.
Councilors split on the best path forward. Several members urged urgency and a coordinated approach so both measures could be taken up together. "Had we been able to suspend readings at the previous meeting, we wouldn't even be here," one councilor said, urging colleagues to suspend the second and third readings so Resolutions 79 and 80 could be passed concurrently on Oct. 2. Councilor Scales criticized the council's handling of the matter as dysfunctional and said he will press for a definitive up-or-down vote next week if necessary.
The special-meeting notice, read into the record, named the task force as an ad hoc advisory committee of the Water, Sewer and Sanitation Committee, to serve until Dec. 31, 2025, and said the committee's chair would appoint no more than seven members. The notice listed appointees as "Brett Alphen, John Grama, and Ben Rutherford" and described the meeting as called in an emergency.
No final vote on either Resolution 79 or Resolution 80 was recorded at the special meeting; councilors agreed to consider the resolutions at the Oct. 2 meeting and several asked colleagues to suspend readings that night so both could be passed together. The council did approve a motion to excuse Councilor O'Neil from the Sept. 23 meeting; Councilor Scales moved the excusal and Councilor Gossett seconded.
Members of the public urged the council to prioritize technical study and monitoring. Ron Russell of 113 Knob Street told the council he did not support additional injection wells in Washington County without further study and recommended bringing in geologists, hydrologists and energy specialists to assess subsurface conditions and how groundwater would be monitored. "My biggest concern is the fact that the permit has already been let... I don't know that the city can stop Deep Rock from drilling this well," Russell said, urging a rational, technical plan.
Another attendee questioned why an emergency meeting had been called less than 24 hours earlier by Brett Hopkins and asked whether the timing was intended to advance Resolution 79 but not Resolution 80 while two council members were absent.
The council's next procedural step is to take up the resolutions at its Oct. 2 meeting; no vote on the underlying mandamus approach or on the injection-well task force was finalized at the Sept. 23 special session.
