Last week, many news agencies reported on the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency'sconclusion that contamination of water wells around the town of Pavillion, Wyo., was the result of natural gas drilling. The contaminants recovered from the aquifer included an assortment of carbon-based compounds, among them the carcinogens benzene, phenol and 2-butoxyethanol. These and hundreds of other chemicals are known to be used where gas extraction is accomplished using horizontal drilling and hydraulical fracturing -- the two procedures commonly and simply referred to as "fracking."
Fracking had been done extensively in the Pavillion area for more than a decade, and, indeed, local residents had been complaining of smelly, oddly-colored water for about as long. They are not alone. According to the nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy group Common Cause, at least 1,000 complaints of water contamination connected to fracking have been reported across the country from the Rocky Mountains to our neighbors in Pennsylvania (most famously around the town of Dimock). The industry continues to reject concerns and fight allegations with a substantial public relations campaign and lobbying effort estimated to have cost the industry $747 million over the past 10 years, with over $20 million of that going to current members of Congress from both parties. Their expenditures have paid off . . . for the gas industry. With tens of thousands of wells across the country, the industry has been exempt from much regulation, including parts of the Clean Water Act, and to date no independent and comprehensive study of the safety of fracking has been conducted.
Meanwhile in Ohio, as gas lease brokers -- with the lure of fast, easy money -- descend on rural areas across the state, two bills that advocate precaution are stalled in the Ohio state legislature.House bill 345 and Senate bill 213 are easy to understand: Pause natural gas extraction by fracking in the state until the U.S. EPA concludes a study -- the first of its kind -- on the safety of fracking with regard to water resources. (This study is expected to be done by 2014). Then require the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to alter Ohio's regulation and oversight of fracking to address the safety concerns identified by the EPA's research.
Simple and common sense, right? It's like making sure your kid knows how to drive before handing him the keys. I'm not sure our state politicians think that protecting the state's water resources is of particular importance, requiring urgent passage of these bills. Instead, I've heard grumblings by many proponents of the moratorium that the bills will be killed in committee.
To contrast, let's look to Nebraska, where, over the course of weeks, Republican Gov. Dave Heineman, with a unanimous bipartisan vote from the legislature, took control of the proposed TransCanada tar sands oil pipeline (the Keystone XL pipeline), re-routing its Nebraska pathway to avoid the Ogallala aquifer -- a major source of water for that and surrounding states. While admittedly I'm no fan of the XL pipeline, I applaud the Nebraska state government for its recognition of the importance of ground water to the residents of that state and its quick action to protect it.
No one likes to believe that their representatives in government, especially state government, would hold moneyed interests above those of ordinary constituents. That's why I am ignoring thereport and accompanying impressive spreadsheet called "Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets," published last month by Common Cause, showing Ohio leaders and committees received over $2.8 million in gas industry money over the past 10 years. At the top of the list of state-level recipients were Gov. John Kasich ($213,519), the Republican Senate Campaign Committee ($114,750) and the Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee ($95,500). (To be fair, former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland was No. 4).
Instead, I'm going to urge lawmakers to apply common-sense precaution and pass the bills to impose a moratorium on fracking until we know how it can be done safely. Other states have done it -- New York, Maryland, even New Jersey. Utilizing domestic, even local, energy resources should be a priority for the country and the state. But it's foolish -- even unpatriotic -- to destroy our drinking water in the pursuit of a buck. And with this last sentence, I'm talking to everyone from federal and state politicians to my neighbors signing gas leases.
Steven Corso Chardon
http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2011/12/ohio_lawmakers_should_impose_f.html