A new report by the Government Accountability Office shows Ohio isn’t testing for chemicals before they enter hydraulic fracturing injection wells.
Hydraulic fracturing companies in Ohio are not required by state law to disclose the chemicals they release into the earth, according to a new report by the federal Government Accountability Office.
Rather, the state puts forward a specific list of chemicals that are acceptable to inject.
What’s more, official state maps don’t pinpoint aquifers where Southeast Ohio residents get their drinking water.
“This stuff is just being pushed into the earth — into old mines, aquifers, whatever happens to be underground,” said Heather Cantino, organizer with the Athens County Fracking Action Network. “People have an idea that ‘well’ means it’s somehow contained, and that’s far from what’s actually happening.”
An Ohio Department of Natural Resources map of aquifers doesn’t include Southeast Ohio, as exact underground water resource cartography has yet to occur in the region. Aquifers are a major concern for pollution.
“ODNR chooses to use analyses of our own where we have control over collection method with accurate precision, rather than relying on the industry to submit a sample during the application process,” said Matt Eiselstein, spokesman for ODNR.
Cantino is skeptical of the agency’s monitoring habits.
“When they make the claims that ‘there’s been no documented contamination from injection wells,’ well, they don’t consistently monitor the wells, so if there is contamination they wouldn’t know it,” Cantino said.
The primary disposal location for fracking waste is injection wells. The chemical wastes, along with about five million gallons of water, are injected into rock formations under high pressure with the goal of not contaminating underground drinking water sources.
According to the GAO report, at least two billion gallons of contaminated waste are disposed in injection wells daily.
According to an ODNR geological survey, Ohio has 199 active injection wells, more than 70 of which are in the Southeast portion of the state. The toxic content of this waste fluid can be tested by the ODNR at any time, but no pre-injection tests are required.
Athens County has seven active injection wells.
Michele Morrone, Ohio University professor of environmental health sciences, said Ohio could be seen as more strict compared to the other states studied when first reading the report.
“Where the problem comes in, then, is the enforcement and regulation side,” said Morrone, who is also the former chief of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Education. “If there’s no money tied to enforcement in the state government budget, it doesn’t matter what the regulations say — in any state — there’s just not going to be any enforcement.”
ODNR responded to the GAO report with a document asking for several changes, which included more specific wording that would lessen bias and rebuttals to claims about the overall impact of fracking.
Property owners can have their own water wells tested for chemicals that could seep from injection sites. But with no required disclosure of potential contaminants, residents would find it difficult to know what to test for, Cantino said, adding that the tests are expensive.
Cantino said ODNR has never held a public comment period before a permit for an injection well has been issued.
The ODNR has issued 239 permits, according to its website. Comparatively, Pennsylvania has issued 10.
Roxanne Groff, Bern Township trustee, said the reason for this unbalance is that fracking companies have their waste shipped to Ohio because of the low regulations for injection.
“Ohio state officials joined early with the oil and gas industry that they would continually brand Ohio’s fracking program as a ‘national leader’ regardless of the underlying facts,” Groff said in a statement. “That lie has been exposed once again and this GAO report helps finish the job of exposing that Ohio is not the national leader it claims to be.”
@MCTilton
mt522913@ohio.edu
