Marietta Council President Calls for State Action on Injection Wells

Susan Vessels, President of the Marietta City Council

In an op-ed that has appeared in The Columbus Dispatch and on the Buckeye Environmental Network website, Susan Vessels call for a bi-partisan approach to protecting drinking water from injection wells. Vessels is President of the Marietta City Council.

In her op-ed, Vessels says that Ohio should follow one simple rule: “Do not allow oilfield waste injection near public water aquifers.” She says this isn’t anti-energy but rather, it is pro-drinking water.

Washington County, where the City of Marietta is located, has 19 injection wells, the same number as the entire state of Pennsylvania.

In her op-ed, Vessels explains that she is a Republican and that she acknowledges that her party has had a lock on state government for the last twenty years.  She says that the Republican Party in Ohio has been desperate to portray itself as industry-friendly and that they have overseen the transition to making Ohio a “dumping ground for out-of-state fracking wastewater.”

In spite of all this, Vessels calls for Republicans and Democrats to come together to protect the drinking water of Ohioans.

Vessels concludes her article by calling for the state to prohibit the injecting of fracking wastewater near public aquifers. [ for Vessels’ op-ed, visit: Vessels ]