PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP - - Mike Craffey lived next to the lakes in Sleepy Hollow for 39 years. As he walks along it, he can point out every bend, every landmark.
"It's been such a great place to raise our children," he said. "They learned all about pond life - - frogs, turtles and fish."
That's why Craffey and his 34 neighbors always took precautions when caring for their lawns and gardens.
But the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says Big Sky Energy Inc. of Cambridge wasn't as careful when it drilled three gas wells late last fall upstream of Sleepy Hollow. Excessive run-off from the drilling site flowed into Sleepy Hollow's lakes, which flow into Hubbard Creek and on into the Ashtabula River.
"This drilling site is the worst erosion site I've ever seen," Jim Irwin of the Ohio EPA said Tuesday.
Consequently, the residents witnessed a huge fish kill late last week.
"We lost fish of all sizes - - blue gills to bass," Craffey said. "The whole bank was loaded with dead fish."
So much sediment from the drilling site ran into the lakes that, over a short period of time, the water turned brown and the depth was notably lowered, Irwin said.
"The (lake) water became so turbid, sunlight couldn't penetrate it," he said. "These fish basically suffocated in the ice cover."
But the landowner of the drilling site, Robert Barr, believes differently.
"The EPA guy is a liar and full of b.s.," he said. "The fish suffocated because the lake froze over and there's not enough water in the pond for all those fish."
Barr does not live on the property, but he plans to plant corn on it.
"It's my farm and I can do what I want with it," he said. "This is America."
Jay Cheslock of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the situation is under investigation. Water and soil samples, as well as photographs, are being taken and studied, he said.
Big Sky Energy failed to follow proper protocol at the drill sites, according to Plymouth Township zoning inspector, Wendy Flickinger.
"The residents are really upset," she said.
Flickinger contacted Gary Cole at ODNR about the situation.
"(The sites) were not done right," she said. "There were no roads to the wells, no sediment ponds ... ODNR told them to fix it."
When contacted by phone Tuesday, Big Sky officials said they're not responsible.
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HUGE FISH KILL
Gas wells being blamed for the contaminated lakes in Sleepy Hollow
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