There’s plenty of good reasons not to sign an oil and gas lease offer

To the Editor:

The following are some reasons why I will not sign a lease to permit horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing on my family's 220 acres:

• I do not believe any attorney can write a lease strong enough to protect my economic interests or environmental concerns when it comes to dealing with big oil and gas companies.

• Clean water is very important to me. Huge amounts of water are mixed with chemicals in order to frack. This water is often stored in open pits, and contaminated water is transported along our roadways to… where? Methane contamination of water has been documented.

• I hate truck traffic on my county road. I especially hate hundreds of really big trucks. And I dread the truck traffic in and around my small college town.

• I like clean air. I do not want to breathe air that smells like gas during periods of flare testing or gas releases.

• Ohio cannot possibly keep up with the regulation of drilling wells. In fact, Ohio regulations do not even require an inspector to visit the site during the drilling of new wells. I do not feel protected by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

• This oil/gas drilling will not be a long-term solution to the area's energy needs or the area's economic woes.  Most natural gas will be exported and eventually our boom town will bust. We need long-term, sustainable solutions.

• Selfishly, I love my land and try to be a good steward. My land is a daily reliable source of peace and quiet. I hike it almost daily with friends and family. I share it with deer and turkey hunters. OU students drive out to take photographs. I do not wish to trade the privilege of caring for this beautiful bit of country for any amount of money.

Joette Weber
Athens

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-35543-thererss-plenty-of-good-reasons-not-to-sign-an-oil-and-gas-lease-offer.html

 

Habitat destruction should worry hunters

A while back, I wrote about the disappearing hunting lands and why we, as sportspeople, should be worried. The outfitters are leasing land, and out-of-staters also are eating up land. Developers arebuying farmlands and making subdivisions, and a new monster is looming: the Marcellus miners. These oil companies are leasing vast expanses of land to do shale drilling. I wonder just how this will affect hunting land. I do not think they will let people hunt where they are drilling just as the coal companies closed land in the past.

Will this spell the end of yet more of our sport?

I have a real concern about this. Hunting is the least of our worries. I did some research on the operations at the Natural ResourcesDefense Council website, and what I found is truly scary. Outdated regulations do not cover the new high-tech drillings, and some of the results were not pleasant. I read of exploding water wells and contaminated water supplies resulting in flammable water and human and animal illnesses. Imagine the impact on wildlife habitat.

The shale formation is along the southeastern part of Ohio in about 10 counties, not in Muskingum County, according to my research, but in Guernsey and Noble. The by-products of this fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, need to be disposed of in some way. Chemicals, water and sand are used under extremely high pressure to fracture the shale. The people who are doing this process say it is safe. Maybe it is, but some other research shows that fracking is suspected in polluted water tables. Once water is polluted, it is done.

All this being said, I submit when habitat is destroyed, animals are atrisk as well. Water, air and habitat destruction only can mean fewer animals and fewer leased lands means less land for us to hunt on in an already shrinking picture. In an area of Wyoming where fracking is allowed, the mule deer numbers declined by 30 percent. I think you can get my drift.

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/article/20111211/SPORTS/112110340/Habitat-destruction-should-worry-hunters

Stark County's Uniontown first 'fracking' target

UNIONTOWN -- Ohio's oil and gas energy rush is taking off and one Stark County community with a dark industrial history is listed to be one of the first fracking sites in our area.

Where the well is going and who is drilling it may surprise you.

WKYC Photojournalist Carl Bachtel brings you the story.

Uniontown is a small community nestled between Akron and Canton in Stark County.

It's also the location of the federally monitored toxic waste site, the Industrial Excess Landfill.

Soon the property across busy Cleveland Avenue from the EPA Superfund site could have drilling.

Hydrofracture drilling is on its way and some residents who know the area's environmental history are fearful.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resourcesalready approved the permit to allow Ohio Valley Energy System to drill right under the homes along Route 619.

Ohio Valley Energy has a history of residential drilling, most notably in Bainbridge Township in Geauga County. In December 2007, the results there were contaminated well water and exploding homes.

Industry videos posted on YouTube tout the safety and environmentally friendly aspects of gas drilling.

But one resident thinks the poor economy is clouding people's judgement.

Pollution linked to ‘fracking’

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday for the first time that “fracking” — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — might be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.

The draft finding could have significant implications while states, including Ohio, try to determine how to best regulate the process.

“All of the rhetoric from the industry has been there’s no way that this can happen,” said Trent Dougherty, a lawyer for the advocacy group Ohio Environmental Council.

“This shows that it has happened, and we need to protect the people in Ohio.”

The EPA found that hydrocarbons likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals. Health officials last year advised them not to drink the water.

The announcement will add to the controversy over fracking, which has played a large role in opening up many gas reserves, including the Marcellus shale in the eastern United States and the Utica shale in Ohio in recent years.

The industry has long contended that fracking is safe, but environmentalists and some residents disagree.

In Ohio, where oil and gas companies are buying up mineral rights beneath millions of acres of land across the state, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is in charge of overseeing the new field.

Oberlin Students Arrested After Protesting Fracking

When college students gear up for a road trip, that usually means a trunkful of beer and a backseat full of misappropriated sorority girls.

But over at Oberlin College, where the student body is known as much for its activism as its handsome selection of black turtlenecks, five kids took a less frivolous trip that still ended in the classic way: with everybody getting their asses arrested.

The Oberlin Five paid a visit to Youngstown last week to protest the hydraulic fracturing that’s become quite the outrage there of late. The area is particularly contentious in light of the seven earthquakes experts claim have taken place there this year, which critics say take the fun out of groundwater contamination common at fracking sites.

The students blocked the path of giant trucks carrying wastewater to the fracking site of D&L Energy. They were charged with disorderly conduct, but freed in time for soy lattes back home the next day.
“There are four wells in Ohio and many more permits in progress,” says Ben Shapiro, an Oberlin grad who spearheaded the field trip. “There are permits under way for hydrofracking as near as Broadview Heights. If you poison water anywhere, we’re all downstream here in Cleveland.”

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/12/07/oberlin-students-arrested-after-protesting-fracking

EPA cites fracking as possible pollution source in Wyoming

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency   has said for the first time that fracking could have caused groundwater pollution in Wyoming, but state officials there apparently are challenging the notion, the Dayton Daily News reports.

Fracking refers to the process used to extract oil and natural gas from the underground shale deposits, which are expected to be an economic boon for Ohio in the next several years. But opponents worry that the drilling process could contaminate drinking water, a claim the EPA now is considering, the newspaper reports.

In Pavillion, Wyo., the fracking was close to water wells, but drilling in most areas goes deeper than the groundwater level, the newspaper reports.

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/morning_call/2011/12/epa-cites-fracking-as-possible.html

Fracking may be culprit for groundwater pollution, EPA says

By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer11:25 PM Thursday, December 8, 2011

An investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has raised alarm among critics of the oil and natural gas exploration boom getting under way in Ohio.

The federal agency said Thursday for the first time that fracking, a technique that can be used to extract deep deposits of oil and gas, may be to blame for groundwater pollution in Wyoming.

Residents in Pavillion, Wyo., initiated the investigation with complaints in 2008 that well water reeked of chemicals. Health officials advised them not to drink the water after the EPA found hydrocarbons in wells.

Natural gas exploration in Ohio is getting off the ground to the excitement of Gov. John Kasich, who said earlier this year he was “simply thrilled” by a report on natural gas explorations.

The Oklahoma City-based company Chesapeake Energy told shareholders it had leased 1.25 million acres to get at the deep Ohio Utica Shale formation.

Chesapeake estimated it could be worth up to $20 billion to the company. Other major companies are also exploring the Utica, believed to underlie the eastern three-quarters of the state.

Andy Ware, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said Ohio officials understand that state officials in Wyoming are disputing the report. “As far as Ohio, we believe we have the best drilling regulations in the country. We are confident we will protect our groundwater here in Ohio,” he said.

But Peggy Koebernick of Yellow Springs, a member of the No Frack group, said the EPA finding could make residents reconsider signing leases for gas exploration. “It could have an impact,” she said. “It could make fracking more controversial, while it’s now touted by the industry as being safe. We need more thorough investigation and a moratorium.”

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/fracking-may-be-culprit-for-groundwater-pollution-epa-says-1296532.html