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 Outdated regulations do not cover the new high-tech drillings, and some of the results were not pleasant.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.