The Athens News
By Libby Cunningham
In other states and increasingly in Ohio, natural gas companies have been offering residents up to several thousand dollars per acre for oil and gas leases. But some who have signed the leases have reported illness due to the chemicals getting into their water supplies. In isolated instances, property owners in other states have reported their tap water catching fire due to chemicals infiltrating their wells.
"If people take what the industry offers when they show up on their doorsteps, they're not getting (a deal), even if (fracking) is something they want to do," Phillips said of the leases. "They're not getting as good a deal, and it's allowing a lot more profit to the company and less to the landowners."
Defenders of natural gas fracking have said the criticism is exaggerated or false, and that the chances of chemicals released in shale deposits infecting water supplies thousands of feet closer to the surface are small or none.
In fact, much of the concerns about fracking involve what happens with the wastewater and chemicals after it's pumped back to the surface. Some municipalities in Pennsylvania, for example, have pumped the tainted water through their sewage systems with little or no treatment.
Democratic House members introduced amendments to H.B. 133, including one that would not allow drilling in state lands (and Lake Erie) where tourism is important. That amendment was tabled, Phillips said.
"(This means) you can frack in places where 5 percent or more of revenue comes from tourism," she explained, noting that this includes Hocking County, where one out of seven jobs is based on tourism. The county's Hocking Hills State Park and the Hocking State Forest are popular tourist destinations.
Kip Rondy, a farmer and landowner near Amesville, echoed Phillips concerns, cautioning attendees about the price that comes with leasing out their land.
"First we sold our timber, then we lost our land, washed down the river, and then sold our coal and then we sold our gas," he said. "Are we any better for those schemes? Those things were not going to make us richer; did they make us rich? I argue not."
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Panelists urged local landowners to keep track of fracking-related legislation currently moving through the General Assembly, and to also engage an attorney if natural gas companies come calling with lease proposals.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-34121-local-landowners-others-repeat-fracking-concerns.html