Washington County Water at Risk while Ohio pols keep taking money from oil/gas

Many in the oil/gas industry knew decades ago that disposal of frac waste

into injection wells was not the ideal way to handle this material, but they

thought that it might be a temporary fix until a better method could be

discovered. Here we are now, decades later, and no one has discovered

what anyone would consider a better method.

Yes, decades have gone by of collecting frac waste and injecting it into the

ground. Critics had warned that we were asking for trouble if we continued

this pumping into the ground beneath our feet. Some underground spaces

may be quite large, but they are not infinite. Some rock formations are

more porous than others.

So what is happening now? In Washington County, Ohio, county seat

Marietta, oil/gas wells are being invaded with frac waste. Some oil/gas

wells that are being drilled are being contaminated by invading frac waste

pumped into the ground under high pressure. Of course the worry here is

that this unwanted subsurface migration of toxic fluids might contaminate

water wells.

Washington County, OH

The mayor of Marietta recently stated that if any amount of radioactive

material from frac waste is found in their water, “We’re done.” There would

be no going back. That water supply would be ruined forever. And forever

is a long time!

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources convinced four injection well

operators in the area to cease accepting any more frac waste. Finally,

ODNR was forced by these serious circumstances to take action.

But this story isn’t just about Marietta or Washington County. It’s about all

of Ohio—wherever there are wastewater injection wells that serve the

oil/gas drilling industry. It’s a lesson for all of us. There is no way we can

afford to have our potable water contaminated with fracking fluid and

radioactive well brine.

There are more than 230 Class II wastewater injection wells in Ohio.

Neighboring states such as West Virginia and Pennsylvania have only a

couple dozen injection wells between them. They don’t have nearly the

capacity for waste injection that Ohio has. So, where do you think they

dispose of their waste? That’s right. Right here in Ohio, the “Heart of it

All!”

Photo: Ted Auch, fractracker.org

Class II injection well under construction in Belmont County, Ohio

Well, why doesn’t anybody in our state government do something about

this? Good question. The largest lobby in Columbus is the oil and gas

lobby in organizations like OOGA, the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. The

industry invests heavily in Ohio House and Senate political campaigns.

Some members of the General Assembly even have vested financial

interests in the industry.

Currently we are witnessing massive corruption in the executive branch of

our federal government. But we don’t have to look as far as DC to find

corruption. We need only look to Columbus.

What to do about this? FaCT Ohio and our allied organizations have

interacted with the legislative process in the Ohio General Assembly.

Hours and hours of testimony, including that of many scientists and other

experts as well as ordinary citizens. Postcards, letters, and phone calls,

repeated over and over. But nothing has really changed.

The General Assembly is not in session now. They’ll be returning for the

lame duck session in mid-November. Proposed legislation prohibiting the

spreading of toxic and radioactive frac brine on roads in the state—HB 439

and SB 329 are stuck in committee right now. Even a Republican member

said these bills are a no-brainer and should be passed. But will they? Will

the committees actually vote them out of committee and let them go to a

vote on the floor of each chamber.

This is a test for our General Assembly. Can they summon the guts to

pass these “no-brainer” bills, or will they just let them quietly die in

committee, hoping few will notice? Of course, this is their usual pattern.

The test for us is can we make enough noise, cause enough inconvenience

to push them into passing these bills? If we can do that, there may be

some hope for even more legislation that will protect Ohio’s water, air, and

soil.

As we all know, the final solution to our state legislature problem is to vote

the bums out of office. That’s heavy lift in this red state. Maybe we’ll make

some progress in the November elections, but I’m not optimistic that the

opposition party is doing enough to make this happen. We need to recruit

good candidates and organize, organize, organize. Oh, and one more

thing. We need to put a decent amount of dollars into our efforts.