Extremely dangerous legislation is quickly working its way through the Ohio Statehouse.
House Bill 133/Senate Bill 108 will open all state-controlled land to hydrofracking. Worse yet, the Leasing Commission, which only requires a vote of three to authorize sealed bids in a process not open to public input or scrutiny, is made up of two members of the gas industry plus the chief of the Division of Geological Survey, Larry Wikstrom, a stated supporter of fracking who said environmental concerns “are misguided” (Athens Messenger 4/3/11).
A fourth member of the Commission, Chief of the Division of Mineral Resources Tom Tugend, is also a proponent of fracking.
This legislation allows private industry to regulate itself, completely turning on its head the government’s role to protect public health from endangerment by corporations interested solely in their own profits. Only government can provide this essential service.
And yet at Ohio House Committee hearings this month, some legislators who will decide on this bill were less interested in the possibility of severe harm than in asking such questions as whether “they proved” that the incident in which a nurse almost died after inhaling fumes from the clothes of a poisoned fracking worker (whom she was treating for poisoning) was caused by fracking fluids.
(Both patients were at particular risk because the gas company refused to disclose the chemicals during days of crisis, forcing medical personnel to act blindly with no knowledge of the poisons involved.)
Science doesn’t have proofs. It relies on reasonable conclusions based on evidence. Industries’ and the Kasich government’s repeated use of phrases such as “no proven case” of contamination is intentionally deceptive.
Of the 4 million gallons used to frack one well, up to 40 percent comes back to the surface. More than 60,000 gallons of the total are “trade secret” chemicals, including highly toxic petrochemicals with concentrations of benzene 93 times the levels in diesel fluid. Diesel fuel is the only fracking fluid not exempted from regulation by the Safe Drinking Water Act by the 2005 Energy Bill’s “Halliburton loophole.”
This volume and toxicity highlight the deceptiveness of Chief Tugend’s statement (Athens Messenger 4/3/11) that the “percentage (of chemicals in fracking fluid) is relatively small.” Just last week, the spillage of many thousands of gallons of fracking fluid — still leaking as of April 21 — has led to the suspension of fracking by Chesapeake Energy in Pennsylvania.
High levels of radioactivity are also present in Marcellus fracking water. The EPA has cited other concerns, such as 10,200 million cubic feet of methane off-gassed and truck emissions from 1,300 trucks per well and the Pennsylvania fish kill linked to a spill of fracking fluid, among many others.
Please lobby your state senator and representative soon to vote against legislation that will devastate our air and water as well as our public lands (Ohio already ranks 47th in the nation for public land per capita) and will provide no recourse to undo damage once the 40-year leases have been signed.
If you vote in Athens, remind Senator Jimmy Stewart (614-466-8076; SD20@senate.state.oh.us) of his stated claim to care about making “the area a better place to live, work and raise a family” and to protect children’s health, all of which require clean air and water and a healthy natural environment. This bill jeopardizes all.
Heather Cantino is the board chair of the Buckeye Forest Council.
