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Conservation groups call fracking to task
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - January 11, 2012)
Conservation groups call fracking to task
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Three conservation organizations called on state legislators last week to slow down on drilling for natural gas until protections can be put in place for property, water and wildlife.
"We are drilling the next generation's wells with the last generation's protections," said Trent Dougherty, director of legal affairs for the Ohio Environmental Council.
Speaking to an audience of about 15 at the Middlefield Library, Mr. Dougherty was joined by representatives from the Buckeye Forest Council and the Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection.
Mr. Dougherty said the groups chose the Middlefield location because of its proximity to the first deep-shale gas well in Geauga County. That well, located in Parkman Township, using horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which forces water, sand and chemicals deep into shale deposits to tap natural gas pockets in the rocks.
Mr. Dougherty said the fracking well is located in the watershed of the Grand River, an "anglers' paradise" which is stocked annually with 90,000 steelhead trout. "It has the most aquatic diversity of any tributary to Lake Erie," he said.
He called on the state to halt the fracking process until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completes its assessment of its impacts on ground water. "Why can't Ohio show some prudence and some restraint and stop fracking at least until the EPA completes its study?" he asked. "Aren't Ohioans entitled to at least that much consideration and protection? Or do corporate interests trump everything?"
Mr. Dougherty pointed to what he termed the "worst black eye" to the drilling industry 15 miles to the west, a gas explosion in a home near a gas well in Bainbridge Township on Dec. 15, 2007. Poor well construction eventually was blamed for the explosion that contaminated dozens of water wells in the area, he said.
Since that accident, he said, Ohio faces a different type of oil and gas production, hydraulic fracturing, which introduces "industrial-scale" drilling involving more acreage, including a 5-acre well pad, more chemicals, more water and more truck traffic.
Among the protections being sought are banning the disposal of toxic-tainted waste materials at drilling site waste pits, stepping up testing in nearby streams, closing the regulatory loophole that permits drillers to ship radioactive-laced drill-cutting wastes for disposal at solid-waste landfills and periodically updating regulations to keep pace with industry practices.
In addition, Mr. Dougherty said, the state should stop the practice of unfunded mandates on local communities. He said it is the local communities that bear the brunt of the costs associated with road damage, noise, added traffic and emergency services that come with fracking. He said an impact fee could be put in place to provide local communities with the money needed to address those issues.
Ronald Prosek, with NEOGAP, said the state is putting corporate profits ahead of its "most precious resource," water.
He said there have been documented cases of contamination of ground and surface waters elsewhere in the United States. "It appears that Ohio is to be the next victim," he said.
He cited the case of Dimock, Pa., where the town's water supply was contaminated. He said the state ordered the drilling company to supply water to the town, but a court reversed that decision.
Mr. Prosek said states do not require tracking the chemicals used and keep them secret, making it difficult to prove the cause of contamination, much like the cigarette industry denied a correlation between smoking and lung cancer. "They keep saying, where's the science? But people are dying," he said.
Ellie Rauh, fracking coordinator with the Buckeye Forest Council, said the New York Department of Environmental Conservation reported that 13 samples of waste water from Marcellus shale gas extraction contained levels of radium-226 that were as high as 267 times the safe disposal limits and thousands of times the limits safe for people to drink. That waste water is being spread on roads for dust control, she said.
In addition, Ms. Rauh said, much of that waste water is stored at drilling sites in open pits, making it a danger to people, their pets and wildlife. She called for a ban on the open pits.
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