Once again, Athens County citizens, your help is needed! We are about to join the Injection Well Hell in Ohio if new injection wells are permitted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Two new injection wells, to be located in Rome and Troy Townships, are in the permitting process.
We missed the boat for commenting on the Troy Township permit (the public comment period was in early January). The application for a permit on the Rome Township well is open for public comment NOW until Sept. 29. I am asking all interested people to write to ODNR, Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management to ask them to hold a public hearing in Athens for all of us who are concerned with having a voice in this process.
These are injection wells. They take the toxic waste from fracked wells in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Do not let the terms “brine” and “saltwater” fool you! “Brine” and “saltwater” are used to hide what this waste really is. Our Congress decided in the 2005 Energy Policy Act to exempt fracking fluids and fracking waste from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Therefore, thousands of trucks will clamber along more roads in Athens County bringing so-called “brine” and “saltwater” –– highly salinized water plus toluene, benzene, formaldehyde, petroleum distillates and volatile organic constituents including dichloromethane, ethylene glycol, hydrochloric acid, radionuclides and more.
Envision this: Scores of trucks loaded with toxic chemicals will travel state Route 144 daily, along with Federal Hocking school buses filled with children. And ODNR wants us to believe that these trucks only have “brine” or “saltwater” in them! Do you feel safe? More importantly, would this be safe for our children? The casings in these wells eventually leak. There are spills at injection well sites. (There was a “brine” seep at another Athens well, the Ladd Ridge Ginsburg well, recorded by ODNR just this August — see ACFAN.org and appalachiaresist.wordpress.com for reports.) Is this safe for our ground water and our drinking water?
Please write to Rick Simmers, chief of ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management and let him know you are concerned about the “health, safety and conservation” of the water, people, roads and land surrounding the D.T. Atha injection well. Emphatically request a public hearing on this permit application to get ODNR to come to Athens to have our concerns heard and into public record. We already have injection wells in Athens County that are not safe. ODNR does not follow through on the violations with which they charge the well owners and operators.
Write to Rick Simmers, chief, Division of Oil and Gas, ODNR, 2045 Morse Road, Building F, Columbus, Ohio 43229-6693 regarding the D.T. Atha Well, “Permit #aAMY0000706.” Or email Rick.Simmers@dnr.state.oh.us. Please visit ACFAN.org for commenting instructions, sample letters and more info on this invasion of our land and water! Your comments must be in the hands of ODNR by Sept. 29. Do not delay!
Roxanne Groff is a resident of Amesville, Ohio.
