Mansfield Ohio Resists Fracking Brine Dumping

The city of Mansfield is reevaluating the plans to allow construction of two fracking brine injection wells, slated to be installed in the industrial park within city limits.

According to a report on Reuters, city officials plan to require testing, paid for by the company bringing in the brine - Preferred Fluids Management, and therefore cutting into the company's bottom line.

A 2004 law complicates matters for the city because the law hands jurisdiction to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

Possibly, the city of Mansfield and other affected communities will find some assistance by looking to the past, to a higher court, such as the findings of the 1974 Belle Terre Supreme Court case where the Court upheld a community's right to create zoning on certain quality of life issues on a case-by-case basis:

•  "The Court listed as considerations bearing on the constitutionality of zoning ordinances the danger of fire or collapse of buildings, the evils of overcrowding people, and the possibility that "offensive trades, industries, and structures" might "create nuisance" to residential sections."