Looks like Barnesville residents are going to be able to save their community from an oil and gas industry dump! The frackers need to find ways to dispose of their waste BEFORE they frack and not send it to Ohio where we have no rules and regulations to protect us! barnesville-enterprise/local%20news/2014/05/20/barnesville-residents-express-concern-about-energreen-360-project Barnesville residents express concern about EnerGreen 360 project Cathryn Stanley Editor Published: May 20, 2014 10:47AM Over 100 people attended a town hall meeting on Monday, May 12 at the Barnesville Fire Station called by and involving Barnesville Village Council, the Belmont County Commissioners, Belmont County Port Authority, Warren Township Trustees, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and EnerGreen 360, regarding the approval by the Port Authority for the company to operate a waste treatment facility at the East Ohio Regional Industrial Park on SR 800, north of Barnesville. A lease between the company and the PA has not yet been signed, and EnerGreen has not yet filed an application with the OEPA. Three of the five Port Authority Board members were present. Also attending the meeting was State Representative Andy Thompson (R, 95th District). Barnesville Village Council President Dale Bunting thanked everyone for coming and said, “Everyone here has a piece in this industrial park. We want folks to have a say and that is why we are here tonight.” EnerGreen 360 President Rob Smith said he had 28 years in the solid waste hauling business in Ohio and Pennyslvania. “We appreciate the interest in our company, and the chance to address the community,” Smith said. He said he and his business partner, Joe Lorenz, began researching the drilling industry and talking with ODNR two years ago to “get a feel for the industry’s waste disposal needs”. Smith said EnerGreen 360 was incorporated in August. He said the ODNR Chief’s Order was granted in January and the company was asked to get their application in “fairly quickly”. The Chief’s order was approved a week after the application was received. Smith also addressed the application itself, saying it was “very broad”. He said Lorenz learned of the Port Authority and the “challenges” it was having to develop the SR 800 North site. Smith said EnerGreen was negotiating a lease with the BCPA, yet to be singed by Merry, and made at least three presentations to the board. “We spent a lot of time and answered many questions,” Smith said. Smith said he also wanted to talk about the lease, which he said was “very specific” as opposed to the ODNR permit and Chief’s Order. “The lease only authorizes us to use top hold material and there will be no oil-based substances — only air and water and sometimes soap.” Smith passed around a sample of the “3 percent” mix. Smith said only NORM (naturally occurring radioactive material) and not TENORM (technologically enhanced). “This is dirt,” Smith said. He said the Chief’s Order allows the company to bring material back to the site to treat and mix with Portland cement (and possibly other materials that could include coal ash) to build flat pads for future development. Smith said future development is why the industrial park was created in the first place. “We are just helping you finish that dream,” he said. Smith went on to say that radioactive testing would be done at the sight by EnerGreen, even though it is not required by the state. Smith said that even though it is not a requirement, the company is “committed to doing the testing” and offered the port authority the opportunity to do additional testing at EnerGreen’s expense. Smith said the company was currently testing the soil and ponds at the industrial park due to the previous owner (Oxford Mining) of the site. “We are going above and beyond. We are trying to be good neighbors and dispel any concerns out there,” he said. Smith said (at that point) it would be 10 to 14 days until the company filed its application with the OEPA. OEPA Director Greg Butler was the next to address the crowd. Butler, who has been director for three years, pointed out that he could not speak specifically to EnerGreen’s application because it had not been received. In general, Butler said the gas and oil industry is “generating a significant amount of drill cuttings and we want to find a use for that material, otherwise it will be left at a landfill.” He said the OEPA was concentrating on finding a beneficial use for drill cuttings. Butler said House Bill 59 allows for drill cuttings, not enhanced by the process (NORM, not TENORM) to be brought to a location, to be tested and used as fill material. “The goal is to find a beneficial use for this material, but at the same time have safeguards in place. I can tell you with some degree of certainty that the material they [EnerGreen] will be using is safe,” Butler said. Also speaking and raising questions as to Ohio’s regulations and testing were Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice, Senior Scientist, Bennett & Williams Environmental Consultants; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Ohio State University, Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioengineering and Nathan Johnson, attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council. Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice said she was familiar with Barnesville, having testified on behalf of Barnesville in its lands unsuitable for mining petition to ODNR. In her opinion, there is no distinction between NORM and TENORM. She said there are four different definitions of TENORM, and Ohio chose the least restrictive definition and redefined that definition even further in 2013. She said Ohio uses the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors definition (1990) which pre-dates shale hydraulic fracturing in Ohio. Dr. Weatherington-Rice also said the material would not make a good foundation for building. She said in her opinion, the only way to use the material so that it would make a lasting foundation was to fire it into ceramic tiles, otherwise, she said it would return to “mud”. She also discussed worker/public health issues including impact to drinking water, radon levels and dust from the process. Weatherington-Rice said Radon levels in Barnesville were already “troubling” without “additional materials being imported”. Nathan Johnson, who said he defined drill cuttings as any waste produced by drilling, charged that Ohio has “no rules” and offers “no legal protections”. He said there were “no rules from ODNR to regulate drill cuttings at this point”. Johnson said House Bill 59 (legislation for Ohio’s state budget for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years introduced on Feb. 12, 2013 and signed by Gov. John Kasich on June 30, 2013) defines drill cuttings as NORM and has no regulations for the “appropriate testing of radioactive levels and no longer requires records be kept”. Johnson said ODNR required that fracking waste sites in operation prior to January 1, 2014 need an application from the chief. He pointed out that EnerGreen’s application was approved in under one week with no public hearing, but “didn’t make the grand-fathering of regulations from ODNR” having been approved on January 3. “It is pretty concerning,” Johnson said, calling the Chief’s Temporary Order a “blank check”. Johnson also spoke to the port authority lease and said there were no restrictions on accepting out of state waste in the lease or the ODNR application. “This application was approved with no public input and with lightning quick turnaround by ODNR,” Johnson said. Following those statements, the public was invited to ask questions. Barnesville resident and business owner Chip Terrett asked if EnerGreen’s process had been used elsewhere, and if so, where and how was it working? EnerGreen 360 President Rob Smith said a company called Clean Earth had been operating a Brownfield site in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for three years using “different, but worse” material. Terrett also pointed out that the lease required $5 million in environmental damage insurance protection. “If this company goes belly-up we would be left with the problem,” Terrett said. Port Authority Board Chairman Marty Gould said he felt the port authority and EnerGreen need to address the information presented that night. Gould said that based on that information, we would have voted no on the project. “If we can’t debunk what they [Dr. Weatherington-Rice and Nathan Johnson] say; we have a serious problem,” Gould said. “Your fears and concerns are shared by the port authority. If your fears and concerns are validated, we stand with you.” Gould continued, “I don’t want you to see us as this horrible entity that is willing to do this at any cost, because we are not.” Barnesville resident Jill Hunkler, who brought EnerGreen’s application to the attention of local officials and raised awareness among residents, asked Gould what more information he needed. Barnesville resident and business owner Frank “Clem” Williams said, “There was a land fill in St. Clairsville 20 years ago. It took $5 million dollars to clean up. Could that happen again?” Barnesville resident Kathryn Clayton asked the decision makers to “consider that all the people here are experts with 150 years of shared experience of the precedent of poor behavior on the behalf of companies and lack of accountability required by the state.” “This is hard-earned experience. If all the people here are saying they are not comfortable with this, then that is a type of experience,” Clayton said. Barnesville resident Dr. Russell Lee-Wood asked, “What is the Barnesville community receiving for risking our health?” Lee-Wood said, “If you look around you can see the effects of companies that have plundered our natural resources and then left.” A Coshocton County resident pointed to EnerGreen’s short history and said self-testing “doesn’t mean much when it comes to protecting people”. Dr. Weatherington-Rice said West Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania were “way ahead” of Ohio in testing and regulating fracking waste. She said West Virginia is separating fracking waste in landfills and requiring it be tested “forever”. “Other states are treating this differently. Ohio doesn’t test at all,” she said. OEPA Director Greg Butler confirmed that over 50 percent of the liquid waste Ohio receives comes from out of state, but again reiterated that drill cuttings, as defined by Ohio law, are NORM. Butler said the OEPA took a year to review an application from a Columbus company that would reuse fracking waste and made that facility go through a “really rigorous” testing process. Butler said that facility is not in operation. “It is really nice to see folks come out and express their opinion and give feedback,” Butler said. Butler concluded that it is the “residents who dictate whether or not they want a facility here,” saying he could only evaluate the material versus the intended use to determine if it is safe. State Representative Andy Thompson said legislation concerning fracking waste is at the top of the state’s priorities. He mentioned House Bill 490, a proposal from ODNR, OEPA and the Department of Agriculture. The bill’s many provisions include repeal of a portion of Ohio law (ORC 3750.081) that allows the oil and gas industry an exemption from reporting hazardous chemicals used and stored onsite to state and local emergency planners and fire departments. He said Ohio has rules and regulations to go by and in his opinion if EnerGreen could find a way to remediate the material, it could be a positive thing. Thompson urged residents to consider the project. “It is worth entertaining,” he said. Barnesville Councilman Scott Gallagher said, “We’ve been working for a long time to develop the industrial park. We acquired land from the coal company and used tax payer money to extend water there, and now sewer. We paved a road into the industrial park. I want an industry there. There is no part of this [EnerGreen project] that I want there.” Gallagher continued, “This is folly. All I want is industry. If we leave that land empty, it suits me better. We have to stop this.” Barnesville resident Rick Bostic challenged port authority board members and commissioners to state whether or not they would approve the project if it were coming where they lived. Port Authority board member Bill Knox, who is a Barnesville resident, was the first to answer. “I appreciate you all taking the time to come here. In 2001, the industrial park began and we partnered with the commissioners, too. A lot of good is coming to our area I hope, but there are things we have to keep an eye on,” Knox said, noting that he did not feel the lease process was “done in an open, transparent manner.” “There are grave concerns over this project, and rightly so.” Knox and board member Scott Mazzulli both voted against the project. “I voted no because I didn’t want this to be the industrial park’s first project. I didn’t want to set a bad precedent. I didn’t want Belmont County to be known as the county that accepts waste,” Mazzulli said. Commissioner Matt Coffland said, “This is not worth upsetting the residents of Barnesville. It is not a problem to say, ‘EnerGreen go somewhere else. You’re not wanted here.’” Comissoner Ginny Favede said that she does not work for the state of Ohio, but for the residents of Belmont County, and while she does not have a bunch of letters behind her name (like Dr. Rice), she has three important letters before her name — MOM. “I want what is best for all of you, our families and our children,” Favede said. She too, said she wanted industry that brought jobs for the industrial park and was against “fracking waste then (when an injection drill site was being considered by the port authority for the site in 2012) and I’m still against it being stored in Belmont County in any way.” Commissioner Mark Thomas said, “I feel the Port Authority Board has gotten the message that they are in charge of making sure they look at where this goes in the future. The board needs to re-visit this.” Gould said the port authority board would re-visit the decision to approve the lease with EnerGreen 360, but did not say when. Belmont County Port Authority meetings are the last Tuesday of every month at 1 p.m. in the Port Authority office, 121 Newell Ave, St. Clairsville. Meetings are open to the public. UPDATE: A Port Authority meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, May 22 at 8 a.m. The EnerGreen project is expected to be on the agenda.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 23:34:30 +0000
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