Pending regulatory legislation for hydraulic fracturing in Ohio was in the hot seat during an Athens County committee meeting Wednesday.
In a unanimous vote, the Athens County Strategic Advisory Committee on Hydraulic Fracturing approved recommendations for Senate Bill 315, which provides the regulatory framework for horizontal fracturing in Ohio and passed through the Ohio Senate on Tuesday.
The committee supported provisions in the bill that strengthened regulation but called for additional requirements in areas it felt were not stringent enough.
One of the committee’s major recommendations for the bill is to require a plan for wastewater recycling in all horizontal-well applications.
“Chesapeake (Energy) reports that they recycle 95 percent of their water,” said Al Blazevicius, chair of the committee. “We need to hold them to that on a regulatory basis.”
The committee also said that a water-recycling plan is worthwhile to include in an application because it is a way to reduce injection waste.
“It makes financial sense for companies to recycle water,” committee member Pat Smith said. “It’s good to try and put rules in that the companies are more likely to comply with than to start a fight.”
The committee also suggested that SB 315 strengthen requirements about disclosure of chemicals used in injection wells. The version passed by the Ohio Senate requires only the chemical class be disclosed, but the committee called for disclosure of chemical names as well as the volume at which each is injected in wastewater.
“There are holes in SB 315 where these rules are not being defined,” Blazevicius said.
The committee will present their recommendations to the county commissioners at their meeting next week, who could then bring them to state representatives.
Athens County Commissioner Mark Sullivan, a committee member, was not present at the meeting.
Committee member Rob Wiley, who was tasked with meeting with Wayne National Forest officials about drilling activity in the forest, reported that, although there are no pending permits to drill horizontally on their property, there is nothing to prevent it from happening on land they already leased.
Wayne National Forest owns only 40 percent of their mineral rights and has already leased 7,000 acres for oil and gas drilling, Wiley said.
After his meeting, Wiley said he does not believe forest officials expect drilling will likely occur there in the future.
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