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Damage to local roads caused by energy industry trucks is like the weather: Everyone seems to talk about it, but no one does anything about it.
Except Belmont Mayor Stanley Sobel. He became tired enough of looking at damage to roads and streets in his village -- one pothole is four feet wide and eight inches deep, he notes -- that he began contacting oil and gas companies. Their trucks are responsible for much of the damage, he told them. What are they going to do about it?
A few days ago, Sobel met with officials of the Ohio Department of Transportation and the EQT pipeline company, to examine Ohio routes 147 and 149.
"The construction engineer from EQT acknowledged that the truck traffic has caused major crumbling of the roads," Sobel told our reporter. EQT is to get back to him regarding what type of help the company can offer.
In the meantime, Sobel is moving on. With the help of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, he plans to invite representatives of EQT, Ascent Resources, Gulfport Energy and XTO Energy to meet with local officials to discuss the problem.
Let us hope that meeting, planned for early March, is productive.
During the early days of the energy boom in our region, several gas companies made serious efforts to be good neighbors. Some rural roads actually were repaved at the firms' expense, after being damaged by trucks.
That has not happened recently.
Both the major energy companies and their subcontractors need to get back to that good-neighbor policy. Otherwise, complaints from counties where concern over road damage is growing will grow to the level that members of the Ohio General Assembly will sit up and take notice -- quite possibly by enacting expensive new rules to safeguard the traveling public.