JAMESTOWN – Chautauqua County is taking steps to prevent hydro-fracking in nearby Pennsylvania from having an adverse impact on local roads. At the start of this month, the Chautauqua County Department of Public Facilities posted weight limit restrictions on three county roads to limit the use to vehicles weighing less than 12,000 pounds per axel. The roads are County Routes 8, 10, and 23 This was a direct result of a notice officials received about the pending use of two gas wells located just over the Pennsylvania border in Columbus Township as “injection wells.”
According to a media release from County Executive Greg Edwards, the County has been aware of the use of injection wells in nearby Pennsylvania for well over six months. The release said a company will be using two gas wells in Columbus township as locations to pump millions of gallons of Marcellus shale wastewater into the ground, as part of the process know as “deep well injection.”
While many issues are involved in this proposal, the road posting is quite easily understood. The information the county received was that 12 tanker trucks per day, 6 days a week for 5 years would be traveling from Pennsylvania onto Chautauqua County roads to reach the location where they would unload the wastewater right at the border of New York and Pennsylvania.
According to Edwards, the additional heavy traffic would result in premature failure of our County highways. He said that while our roads are well built, they were not designed or engineered to withstand this additional punishment – and as a result damage would occur and costs would result for the repair or replacement of the roads.
All highway users exceeding the weight posted limit should contact the Department of Public Facilities and apply for an overweight permit Anyone with special concerns or impacts from this posting may contact Department of Public Facilities Director George Spanos at (716) 661-8400 or my Edwards office at (716) 753-4211.
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