With the evening sun beaming through a stained-glass window, and a depiction of Jesus looking down from the opposite wall, the room would have been serene – except for the 180 stern-faced people filling all the seats and standing shoulder-to-shoulder against three walls.
The angst in that space was inspired by Del-Co Water Company’s interest in potentially drilling a utility-scale water well or wells south of Utica in Washington Township, just south of Ginger Hill Road and east of Rt. 13. The nonprofit cooperative based in Delaware County is interested in pumping at least 1 million gallons a day – and up to 6 million gallons a day – from the ground there to serve rural areas in northern Licking County.
Another 20 or more people stood outside the open doors of the Utica Church of Christ for more than an hour in a steamy 81-degrees, craning to hear Dale Arnold, director of energy, utility and local government policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau.
“Getting up and flying off the handle is not going to be an option,” Arnold told the crowd. “I went to one hearing in Northwest Ohio where people were yelling and screaming, and two weeks later, the permit was approved. Go in prepared as a community.”
| Read more: In light of Del-Co’s interest in Licking County water, Farm Bureau to host info session on water-resource management
He told them to consider forming a grassroots committee to work with local officials, including Washington Township trustees and the Licking County Commissioners, some of whom attended the meeting.
Arnold urged landowners to do their homework – know the law, know their rights and potentially know how much water they currently use and how much water is under their land.
If rural residents put meters on their wells, they’ll know exactly how much water they use and can argue with specifics if and when they challenge a utility’s water consumption, he said. If owners hire a hydrologist to pinpoint how much water is in the aquifer under their property, they can attach a report to their property records at the county recorder’s office and argue to state regulators, when needed, with specifics about how the aquifer might be affected when a utility pumps millions of gallons a day from it, he said.
| Read more: A Delaware County water system’s search for water in Licking County creates anxiety in Washington Township
Arnold was there at the request of the Licking County Farm Bureau, which had been asked by trustees of nearby Washington Township to arm local landowners – mostly farmers – with information about how they can manage aspects of growth and development sweeping across western Licking County toward them.
And for as much as Arnold might have calmed the crowd by providing details about how they might prepare for water extraction from the area, he introduced new concerns – that the demands for electricity and natural gas fueled by growth and development in Licking County will also bring requests from utility companies to install new lines or expand existing lines. All of that could affect landowners, and he said they should be prepared to deal with that eyes wide open.
He urged them not to be awestruck by people in suits and shiny, new vehicles offering substantial amounts of cash.
“Don’t sign a 30-page contract on the hood of your pickup truck,” he said, encouraging them to get lawyers to review the documents and advise them and adding that the Farm Bureau could refer them to trustworthy lawyers.
During a brief question-and-answer session at the end of the meeting, a man from St. Louisville, south of Del-Co’s proposed well site, asked, “What happens down stream when the water table drops” if Del-Co were to start pumping there.
“Del-Co can’t drain the water table,” Arnold said. “They would be in a world of hurt.”
“So will these people,” the man from St. Louisville said, waving his hand across the crowd.
Another man asked how Del-Co would get water from the well site to wherever it would sell it.
“Would it run across other people’s land with a pipe?” the man asked?
As he said several times to questions specific to Del-Co, Arnold said, “You need to ask them (Del-Co) that.”
Glenn Marzluf, general manager and chief operating officer of Del-Co, has said the company will hold a meeting for local residents at a later date – after the company has specific details about the aquifer from test wells it hopes to drill soon.
Marzluf was among those who attended the July 29 meeting. Also in attendance was Jim Roberts, executive director of Licking Regional Water District, which is seeking to build a water treatment plant along Rt. 161/37 south of Alexandria and just west of Granville, and is locked in a debate with the Municipal Utility Coalition of Licking County – Alexandria, Granville and Johnstown – about which of them should serve portions of western Licking County.
Dave Sapp, a Licking County farmer and road supervisor for St. Albans Township, said that St. Albans Township – southwest of Washington Township and very near the site where Intel is building its $28 billion computer-chip manufacturing campus – said that several water systems are vying to serve the township.
“Listen to what they are telling you,” he said, issuing a warning about impending growth and development issues for all of Licking County. “I’m sorry to say the fight is on, but the fight is on.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.