A woman who chained herself to the gates of an Athens injection well for around six hours this morning to protest the injection of out-of-state waste into Ohio wells, has been released and is awaiting a bond hearing this afeternoon.
Madeline ffitch, a 31-year-old Athens landowner, has reportedly locked herself to the gate of the Ladd Ridge Road site, effectively shutting down the site, according to an email describing the protest written by Sarah Warda, an Athens resident.
The group supporting ffitch is going to protest outside the bond hearing and will help to pay her bail, said Nate Ebert, a media spokesperson for the group of protestors who chose to identify themselves as a group of concerned citizens.
Ebert said the event was planned in advance.
The group of around 30 Athens residents was protesting what they say is an illegal and unethical amount of waste from out-of-state being put into the injection well.
They sought to prompt the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to test the waste water being put into the well.
"They have been accepting truckloads of waste daily," Ebert said. "A lot of it is from out of state."
Ebert said the group believes the waste that is being brought into the plant is from out-of-state becuase the trucks that bring in the waste had license plates from other states, but could not say for sure where the waste was coming from.
The email states that citizens have petitioned for testing and that there are conflicts of interest between the state agency and the oil and gas industry.
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