Plan can potentially pollute water supply; Athens County residents worried
A proposed loading dock for shipping hydraulic fracturing waste on the Ohio River has Athens County residents — and some politicians — heated about what effect, if any, it could have on local water supply.
The suggested site is located in Portland, just south of Athens County and downriver from the fork of the Ohio and Hocking rivers. The site would be operated by GreenHunter Resources, a Texas oilfield management company that activists have long pinpointed as a threat to local flora and fauna.
Shawn Beasley, Athens city water plant manager, said all city residents get their water from one underground source: a glacial aquifer near the Hocking.
Despite the proximity, Beasley said he’s not too concerned about anything harmful in the Hocking contaminating the resource.
He called the aquifer “pretty independent of the (Hocking) River, especially if you are talking about contaminants.”
Activists, including those in the Athens County Fracking Action Network, made it a goal this summer to flood the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must approve GreenHunter’s application before the dock can be built, with letters of opposition.
Group member and organizer Heather Cantino said she sees the dock as a threat to clean water in the area.
“Our aquifers and other clean water sources are at risk for contamination, but we’ll never really know if they never have to report their activity,” Cantino said.
Members of Athens City Council also passed a non-binding resolution in late July condemning the move. At the time, Mayor Paul Wiehl said he was bracing himself for a worst-case scenario, in light of the water crisis in West Virginia this winter, when thousands of gallons of a chemical spilled into the Elk River and kept hundreds of thousands of people without drinkable water.
“We’re going to become a dumping ground,” he told council members. “I’m afraid there’s a lot of money behind that. But we will do whatever we can.”
Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th Ward spearheaded the resolution and shares Wiehl’s fears. “Transporting waste on the Ohio River is a bad idea … many municipalities get their water from the Ohio. Indeed, if our aquifer were to be contaminated by fracking or waste disposal, Athens may have to resort to the Ohio River for water.
