The arrival of the oil and gas industry in rural, eastern Ohio has brought millions of dollars in leasing money for landowners, a flurry of business activity, and a tax boost for counties. But carving out room – and roads – to accommodate energy giants like Chesapeake is not without its challenges.

An Ohio injection well operator run by a man accused of illegally dumping fracking wastewater into a storm sewer is asking a state panel to overturn an order revoking its operating permit.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources today released new production figures for oil and gas wells in the state’s Utica Shale. For 2012, ODNR tallied oil and natural gas production for 87 wells which used hydraulic fracturing techniques. Most of the wells are situated in eastern Ohio counties. 65 wells produced oil and gas.

Four large oil and natural gas companies are selling off thousands of acres in Eastern Ohio, but that’s not stopping the debate over increasing Ohio’s severance tax on drillers.

The natural gas drilling technique known as fracking has been vilified for the millions of gallons of fresh water it uses, and the amount of waste water it produces. But drilling also generates leftover dirt, rocks, and mud that gets trucked off to landfills.

Some environmentalists, drilling companies, philanthropic groups, and others are touting a compromise on the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” But some major Ohio environmental groups are unconvinced.

A coalition of environmental and community groups is asking federal regulators to suspend Ohio’s authority to monitor wells that store drilling waste water.

The drilling company that holds the mineral rights to The Wilds animal preserve near Zanesville says it won’t do any deep-shale drilling on the property.