The report centered on locations in six states, including Athens County.
The Athens County Fracking Action Network revealed today that, through a private six-state air quality report, the new K&H facility near Torch in Athens County vents “volatile organic compounds” and hydrocarbons every day.
The ACFAN and Appalachia Resist! collaborated on the report to obtain air samples near injection wells and open frack waste pits locally, the report said. The sampling project allegedly showed that some chemical levels were hundreds of times higher than what “some federal agencies have determined to be safe.”
"I have personally stood in the front yard of one of K&H's neighbors and experienced light-headedness and sore throat in as little as one-half hour of exposure,” ACFAN member Heather Cantino said in a news release. “These are the same symptoms of toxic hydrocarbon exposure that I have felt standing near injection well sites."
The state of Ohio does not require those applying for well permits to disclose what chemicals they will be pumping into the ground, a recent report from the federal Government Accountability Office said.
The K&H facility has 11 large tanks, the report added, explaining that air samples were taken by local residents trained in the use of various air monitoring devices in areas where people experienced adverse health symptoms or strange odors.
These samples were then sent for analysis to an “independent laboratory that uses federal government-approved analysis methods.”
More than 12 community organizations were involved in the multi-state air monitoring report titled “Warning Signs: Toxic Air Pollution at Oil and Gas Development Sites,” which was released Thursday and published in the journal, Environmental Health.
“In New York, Ohio and elsewhere, business leaders are concerned about the long term economic impacts of gas and oil development on their business, their communities and the overall economy,” Hilary Baum, with the American Sustainable Business Council, said in the report. “Of course most businesses need clean air and clean water for their operations as well as for healthy employees; and specific business sectors such as food and beverage production are also dependent on uncontaminated soil.”
The report recommends community engagement and participation in regulatory and policy decisions on oil and gas development, use of a precautionary approach to state and federal regulation of oil and gas development, more robust monitoring by government agencies and greater investment in energy efficiency, among other things.
Officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources were unable to comment as of press time, as they had yet to see the report.
eo300813@ohio.edu
