NORTH LIMA, Ohio - Work is being completed on a new gas and oil waste injection well in southern Mahoning County.

The well is the owned by the same company that operated a similar well that was shut down following a series of earthquakes that hit the Youngstown area.

A 100 foot tall derrick, recently erected off Route 7 in North Lima near the turnpike interchange, is attracting a lot of attention.

The injection well is now in its final stage of construction. According to a spokesperson from D&L Energy, the plan is to remove existing piping that is holding the deep hole open and install a cement footer at the bottom of the well. The pipe will then be re-inserted and then the well can begin accepting brine and other well drilling waste.

He says there is no reason to believe this well will cause any problems that may have been associated with the company's other well on Ohio Works Drive in Youngstown.

"There still never was an official determination as to what happened there, but that site is 11 miles away from this site and it is apples and oranges. What may have potentially happened at the number one site, it shouldn't be assumed that it could happen here," said D&L Energy spokesperson Vince Bevacqua.

Bevacqua said that there are 180 other brine injection wells operating in Ohio without problems.

But people who live in the North Lima area say they are worried. "I'm concerned on how far they are plugging it back. From what I can tell, it's still in the Precambrian crystalline. We don't know where these fault lines are. We really don't," said resident Patti Gorcheff. "There's no guarantee that we're safe. It's a pretty populated area out here,"

Bevacqua said that government regulations address that issue. "New state regulations require that all injection wells be above the Precambrian level that you heard so much about in the earlier reporting," Bevazqua said. "This new footer will bring this well up to that shallower depth. There will be 500 feet of cement laid at the bottom of this to bring that well shallower."

D&L doesn't expect to begin using the injection well until late this year, or early next year.