There is a proliferation of gas wells in neighborhoods throughout Cuyahoga County.  It is quite possible that you could wake up one morning to find that a new neighbor - a gas well - is about to move in next door.

Do these gas wells enhance our property and our communities?  There are a great many questions than need to be asked - and answered - about the impact they are making on our lives.

• Is it the State of Ohio that controls drilling in your community?
• How many wells are allowed in your community?
• What affect do drilling and the presence of wells have on the safety of property and persons?
• Do neighboring gas wells increase or decrease property values?
• Do neighboring gas wells contaminate the soil or raise other environmental concerns?
• What are the rules and regulations regarding door-to-door solicitations by sales representatives of gas well companies in your community?
• What about insurance coverage on the property where the gas well is located?  Or on a neighboring property?  In either case, what does that mean in terms of your liability?
• What voice if any do residents have in determining the future of gas wells in their communities?

If you would like the answers to these and other questions,
take the time to contact your city and state officials.

C. Sabetta, a Mayfield Heights resident
csabetta@sbcglobal.net

Recently we have had the experience of a door to door gas well lease salesman.  We were told that our neighbor is putting a gas well on his property and this could make us money. Hearing this I decided to do a neighborly door to door consult. What I discovered is that no one on our street has enough information to make a decision like this.  We were not all informed in a professional way and many on our street were not informed at all.  Seems a select few can make the decision to change the ‘well’ being and future of our street life for all the other landowners.  One of the neighbors on our street was told that the state is putting up the rest of the land to complete the unit needed to support this gas well. If this is true, why not put this industrial product on state land and not 100 feet from a residential property. Rule of thumb is ‘Land should have an appropriate use’ giving residential property an industrial use is mixed use. Residential property is just that, Residential. After much research we have seen the good and bad of this gas well development. And to us and many of our residents the bad outweigh the good.  We have learned from Senator Timothy Grendell, Senator Thomas Patton and Ohio State Representative Josh Mandell’s Office that if this gas well lease salesman obtains the almost 20 acres of land needed to apply for a permit he can mandatory pool our land. We are certain that this gas well will devalue our previously private, quiet street and has caused unrest among us where there was none. Our city and nearby municipalities have become saturated with these gas wells within the last two years. So, I decided to find out why these gas wells are so popular. What I found out is that they are not popular at all. Residents are accepting these gas wells due to lack of awareness. How did this get out of our cities hands and into the states?   I am not alone in my views. This is such a problem around Ohio that MIT (Mass. Institute of Technology) came here and created a web based tool to keep neighborhoods informed.  Since then, hundreds of citizens have united to help one another through a project called NEOGAP (Northeast Ohio Gas Accountability Project).  By working together we can make a difference.
Concerned here in Mayfield Heights,

Susan and Chuck Sabetta, Catalano Drive “Dedicated to Patrolman Nick Catalano”