GreenHunter wants frack waste barge dock across from Ravenswood, WV Truth: The fossil fuel industry has shown time and time again that they cannot guarantee the safe transport of toxic and flammable cargo There’s a suspiciously under-the-radar proposal by GreenHunter, a Texas-based frack waste company, to build a barge off-loading facility on the Ohio River in Portland , Ohio , just across the river from Ravenswood , WV . The operation would greatly increase barging of liquid frack waste along the Ohio River not only from surrounding states, but potentially from Louisiana and Texas . The Army Corps of Engineers is considering granting permission to the company to receive millions of gallons of toxic, cancer-causing, radioactive, flammable fluid destined for injection wells. Much more difficult to clean up than spills on land, fracking fluid spills and barge accidents would affect our drinking water supply and may permanently damage the ecosystems that keep our water supply healthy. Cincinnati , Huntington and other Ohio River city water officials are well aware of the risks after the Elk River chemical spill that sickened West Virginia residents for months and alarmed residents throughout the region. Consider this: This decision could have wide ranging effects on the expansion of Marcellus and Utica drilling. Barging this waste opens the floodgates for more waste throughout the region. The Coast Guard has not yet ruled to allow barge shipments of fracking waste on our rivers, and no decision should be made on this permit prior to the Coast Guard’s determination because the effect of the Corps granting a permit for this terminal biases and pressures the Coast Guards decision. Green Hunter’s effort to attain this permit appears to be an attempt to influence decision makers. Spillage, leakage, and accidents can expose people and the natural habitat to the concentrated salts of fracking flowback water, the unknown constituents of fracking fluids including some known toxic chemicals, many of which have been demonstrated to be endocrine disruption agents. These dangerous fluids should not be shipped on our public waterways, period, simply because accidents do happen, have happened, and will happen! A comment period on this ill-conceived proposal ends this Monday July 28, so there’s scant time to do this, but please consider the importance. Here are more talking points you may want to consider or elaborate on: Request a public hearing on the matter, owing to the significant interest in southeastern and southern Ohio , and northern West Virginia in this project, as well as downriver communities and states. Request a 90-day extension of time for the submission of public comments, from July 28, 2014 until October 28, 2014. This is a complex issue which has been inadequately described in the June 27, 2014 Public Notice. The Notice was issued during midsummer, a time when members of the public might be unavailable on vacation and unavailable to participate in this proceeding. In addition, the dock proposal has not been given official notice in state or local media The Public Notice does not characterize in the simplest terms what materials GreenHunter proposes to deliver, other than referring to them as “bulk liquids.” We suspect the obvious: that the facility will accept bargeloads of oil and gas drilling wastes (~105,000,000 gallons per year, according to the Notice), which are expected to be industrial chemical wastes which also contain moderate to problematic levels of radioactivity and which are bound for disposal in nearby injection wells on both sides of the Ohio River. An Environmental Impact Statement is required. With roughly 105,000,000 gallons annually of fracking waste to be offloaded, handled and stored at, and ultimately transported away from, the Meigs County facility, that facility, alone, should be the object of an EIS respecting expected and unexpected air and water quality effects. For additional reference, the US Army Corps of Engineers public notice is here lrh.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/PublicNotices/tabid/4125/Article/485841/lrh-2013-848-ohr.aspx Some guidelines: The online notice posted by the Corps June 27 specifies that public comments must be hard copies and received at the Corps’ Huntington office by July 28. It’s important that you SUBMIT HARD-COPY COMMENTS TO THE CORPS ADDRESS LISTED. Teresa Spagna, Corps employee overseeing this file, has agreed to accept comments at the email address listed. Be advised, however, that the Corps has not formally stated that comments sent to Spagnas email address will be accepted into the record of the permit application. The Corps could, legally, reject emailed comments as directed to the wrong location. The agency has not always been trustworthy to safeguard the public interest and we strongly recommend that you dually-submit, via paper and email. So, please send by Priority Mail or via U.S. certified mail, return receipt requested. Please address your “snail mail” comments to: United States Army Corps of Engineers ATTN: CELRH-RD-N Public Notice No. LRH-2013-848-OHR 502 Eighth Street Huntington , West Virginia 25701-2070 And via email to Teresa Spagna, [email protected] RE: LRH 2013-848-OHR must be included in the e-mail subject line As always, include your name, address, phone number and email so they can respond to your comments. We know this takes energy and time and it’s “now”, but please consider the consequences. Thank you. Chuck Wyro stok Outreach Organizer Sierra Club, WV Chapter T: 877 252 0257 E. outreach@marcellus-wv marcellus-wv Water is Life...Keep It Clean
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 11:41:11 +0000