As energy companies scurry to buy up land for new natural gas wells, the amount of waste the “fracking” produces continues to climb. All that waste — called “brine” — has to go somewhere, and a lot of it comes to Athens County for underground storage in its four injection wells.
Residents are understandably concerned about brine. The Columbus Dispatch reported in September that fracking brine collected from Marcellus Shale wells contained three times as much radium as conventional wells’ brine, resulting in radioactivity that is more than 300 times the legal limit.
Yet the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has neglected Athens County disposal wells, where brine is pumped more than a mile underground — deep enough, it says, to prevent it from contaminating soil or water.
If the wells are functioning properly, the brine is safely trapped in a layer of rock and is not a hazard to humans on the surface. But ODNR’s erratic inspection schedule has let each of Athens County’s wells go more than 30 weeks without inspection — in one case, turning up five violations in a well that had not been inspected for eight months.
It is appalling that ODNR has allowed Athens County wells to slip under the radar, especially considering the amount of resistance fracking has met in Southeast Ohio. Regular inspections could go a long way to prove to the county’s objectors that disposal wells are safe and reliable.
An ODNR spokeswoman told The Post that Ohio’s more than 170 wells are inspected every 10 or 11 weeks on average. Unfortunately, it appears Southeast Ohio is being grossly ignored.
ODNR also appears to be letting Athens County injection well operators off the hook in fixing violations. Records for some violations don’t list a date when the wells were brought into compliance. One record that does list a compliance date shows that an Athens County well was not repaired until four months after ODNR required.
We don’t know why ODNR is allowing wells in Athens County to operate under a lower standard, but the bar needs to be raised when the potential contamination of our soil and water is concerned.
ODNR began hiring more inspectors after the June signing of Ohio Senate Bill 315, which toughens fracking-related regulations. We implore the department to allocate its newfound resources more carefully.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
