I have talked to Lea throughout this past year. She is really a baddass chic... ZANESVILLE – A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Franklin County court claims Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources illegally approved 23 fracking waste facilities, including one in Coshocton County and three in Muskingum County. Lea Harper, director of the Fresh Water Accountability Project, helped launch the lawsuit against the state, and claims the ODNR illegally issued Chiefs Orders by allowing facilities to operate without regulating radioactivity on fracking waste. Chiefs Orders were not required before February 2013. My tax dollars are being used against me, to fight this lawsuit, Harper said. Ohioans want to be able to raise their families here, not be used as a dumping colony for other states without any say. The lawsuit demands the ODNR place the 23 facilities on hold until adequate regulations are put in place and public discussions are hosted. Aside from court costs, the accountability project is not asking for financial compensation. We dont want to wait for people to be sick, Harper said. Were trying to be proactive. Just give us our democracy back. Last year, Buckeye Brine was given permission to continue processing fracking wastewater after House Bill 59 required the Chiefs Orders. In December, Halliburton Energy Services was given permission to open a new Liquid Mud Plant in Zanesville. The plant, at 4999 East Pointe Drive, is capable of processing more than 250 barrels of drilling mud per day, according to the application the company sent to the ODNR in December. Drilling mud, deemed nonhazardous by the ODNR, is classified as a solid waste by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, meaning it can be sent to a landfill. Drilling pushes rock cuttings mixed with water back to the surface to produce drilling mud, often mixed with radioactive waste. But the states regulations on solid waste dont require private companies handling drilling mud to report radioactivity levels, Harper said. The fracking waste sites are concentrating material that was once buried safely underground, Harper said. People cant believe regulatory authorities are looking the other way, and we cant either. Dow Cameron Oil and Gas, at 5555 Eden Park Drive in Zanesville, and Heckmann Water Resources, at 935 E. Pike in Norwich, also were approved for drilling waste intake, according to ODNR data. Each of the Muskingum County companies must properly treat, recycle, process or dispose of substances according to the existing state laws, rules and regulations, said Matt Eiselstein, ODNR communications specialist. Eiselstein would not elaborate on what proper treatment and disposal techniques were. Ohio has some of the most lax oversight regarding the fluids used during injections and fracking waste disposal, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Both liquid and solid waste from drilling operations is trucked across state lines to Ohio landfills and processed, Harper explained. According to accountability project estimates, companies along the east coast can save more than $500,000 by transporting 4,150 cubic feet of waste solids to Ohio rather than dispose of them at local site specializing in radioactive material. Weve been waiting on additional regulations for a while now, but they never come, Harper said. Its becoming a huge industry in Ohio, for this hazardous material to be handled here without being tracked. Its a huge risk for taxpayers.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 21:11:04 +0000
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