Dozens protest gas drilling method of fracking in Columbus

Columbus -- Jamie Frederick held up a pair of heavy-duty ear protectors that she used in an attempt to block out the sounds of oil and gas drilling near her home.

They didn't work.

"Living through the drilling and fracking phase of the most recent well was a truly terrifying experience," Frederick said.

"... Twenty-four-seven, nonstop, we were subjected to such unbelievable levels of noise that you could only understand if you heard if for yourself. It would have been more peaceful to live on an airport runway."

At an anti-fracking rally Jan. 10 at the Statehouse, she recounted health problems, contaminated water, property damage and other issues that have affected her and her husband since they moved to the Youngtown area.

"I have a message for you, Gov. Kasich, and to you, Mr. Gasman," she said. "You may have taken my safety and my property value. You may have taken my gallbladder and you may have taken my ability to have children, but you will not take my voice. And I will not stop until you stop."

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State reps seek rules on fracking

MANSFIELD -- Two Ohio House members told concerned north central Ohioans they are looking into ways to tighten Ohio's regulation of fracking and injection disposal wells.

State Rep. David Hall, R-Millersburg, chairman of the House natural resources and agriculture committee, and State Rep. Jay Goyal, D-Mansfield, spoke during a four-hour-long "Fracking Forum" held Saturday at the Mansfield-Richland County Public Library.

Goyal said he tries to maintain an open mind about Preferred Fluids Management's proposal to drill two 5,000-foot-deep injection wells for disposal of fracking waste on Mansfield's far north side.

But that facility would produce just two jobs on-site at the injection well, plus possibly six for Ashland Railway, while leaving the community open to the risk of groundwater contamination from waste fluids injected down the wells, Goyal said.

"Frankly, I really see little or no benefit of having an injection well in our community," he said. "Even if it's a 0.1 percent chance of our groundwater being contaminated, it does not make any sense to allow this in our community."

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Scientists Studying Connection Between Fracking And Earthquakes

The connection between fracking and earthquakes, however, could spur significant changes in state policies, The Wall Street Journal reports. The federal government does not develop or enforce fracking regulations, leaving the matter to states. As a result, states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio have divergent laws pertaining to fracking and the treatment of drilling wastewater.

Ohio lawmakers are divided over fracking, but a 4.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Youngstown last week has rattled even supporters. Ohio Governor John Kasich, who supports fracking, shut the wastewater well that experts said likely prompted the earthquake. He also ordered a thorough review of all seismic activity in the area.

A number of prominent engineers have lobbied government officials to outlaw fracking until the scientific community reaches a consensus on long-term safety problems. Even amid such concerns, though, many public leaders have endorsed fracking, arguing that it has caused natural gas prices to drop precipitously, and has made the U.S. the biggest natural gas producer in the world.

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REPORT: NATURAL GAS FROM SHALE NOT SUITABLE AS “BRIDGE FUEL,” MAY WORSEN CLIMATE CHANGE

The new paper emphasizes this 20-year time frame, and analyzes the US national greenhouse gas inventory in that context.

The 20-year time frame is particularly important, the authors explain, because it may well be the timing for a “tipping point” for climate change if emissions are not brought under immediate control.  The new paper builds on major new findings from the United Nations and from researchers at NASA published over the past six months, highlighting the urgent need to immediately reduce methane pollution globally. 

Robert W. Howarth, David R. Atkinson professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell 

University, said:   “We believe the preponderance of evidence indicates shale gas has a larger 

greenhouse gas footprint than conventional gas, considered over any time scale.  The 

greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas also exceeds that of oil or coal when considered at decadal 

time scales, no matter how the gas is used.  We stand by the conclusion of our 2011 research:  

‘The large [greenhouse gas] footprint of shale gas undercuts the logic of its use as a bridging fuel 

over coming decades, if the goal is to reduce global warming.’”

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A New Front in the Fracking War

Starting in March 2011, a series of microearthquakes hit Ohio. The first few registered just above 2.0 on the Richter scale and were not felt by residents. But on New Year’s Eve, a tremor hit Youngstown that measured 4.0—still very mild, but noticed. It was the second quake to hit the area in a week, moreover—and both had epicenters within five miles of a year-old storage well for wastewater that is a byproduct of the extraction of natural gas. 

NO FRACKING WAY, MAN

AP / MARK STAHL

While the quakes caused negligible injuries and property damage, they were enough to prompt Governor John Kasich to shut down five storage wells in the vicinity, pending an investigation into any possible connection between drilling and seismic activity. The episode made Ohio more than ever a central front in the struggle over the controversial natural-gas extraction technique called horizontal hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. 

Fracking Experiences from “Victory Field”, Wetzel County, WV

On Jan. 9, 2012, a group of Athens residents travelled to Wetzel County, WV to have an eyewitness view of hydraulic fracturing sites run by Chesapeake Energy, a company planning extensive fracking in our county.  We were hosted by the Wetzel County Action Group.  Northern Wetzel County is home to 33 Marcellus Shale gas wells and 3 compressor stations installed by Chesapeake in a 6 square mile area of the county since 2007.  Chesapeake has a total of 140 wells permitted in Wetzel, and many additional wells and permits exist with other companies. What was once miles of bucolic forested and agricultural West Virginia countryside is now a rural industrial petrochemical complex.  We saw numerous ridgetop drill pads and compressor stations, and spoke to several farmers who experienced significant impacts on their water, air, land, livelihoods, property values, personal health and quality of life.

From a sheep farmer’s hilltop, we saw 6 well pads and a compressor station in the surrounding viewscape.  Numerous ridgetops had been cut down, leveled, and populated with drilling equipment and interconnecting pipelines.  We were told that most of the well pads in the county were situated on leveled ridgetops.  All of these facilities seemed surprisingly close to one another, unlike what we expected from horizontal drilling.  We estimated a distance of only 2000 feet between two of the drill pads.  From another landowner’s hilltop, the elevation had been reduced by 18 feet, and a 5 acre drill pad was placed 200 feet from his home, filled with storage tanks containing toxic frack water and volatile condensate, well heads, and various processing equipment.  That was his living environment, with views of more drill pads on the surrounding hillsides.   As we drove around the county, it was common to see ridgetops that had been lopped off by 18-55 feet that were now covered with gas wells, storage tanks, compressor stations, and huge storage ponds (many with slipping dams).  While Wetzel County is higher in elevation, the general topography seemed very similar to the rolling hills of Athens County.  It was disturbingly easy to imagine our area transformed in the same way.

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New Quinnipiac poll: Ohioans strongly oppose hydro-fracking until more study, split on heartbeat bill

Gus Chan, The Plain DealerWorkers operate a drilling rig owned by Chesapeake Energy in Carroll County. Chesapeake is the first to use hydro-fracking, or fracking, on the Utica Shale in Ohio. A new poll of Ohio voters shows 72 percent think the practice should be stopped until more study of it can be done.

A new poll of Ohioans shows that more than seven in ten want the controversial practice of hydro-fracking stopped until more study of it can be done, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released this morning.

The first statewide poll on hydrofracking--the practice of pumping millions of gallons of chemical-laced water into shale deposits to crack open oil and natural gas deposits far below the earth's crust--shows Ohioans anxious about its impact on the environment. By a margin of 72-23, Ohioans say the practice should be stopped until further study.

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