


(Photo illustration/MetroCreative)

Ohio HB 507 passed by way of the lame duck session devoid of any public comment. This bill, which facilitates fracking on our public lands, becomes law on April 7. When that takes place, the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission will oversee the leasing method. They generate the guidelines and lease agreement types for the state’s “fracking-nominated” parcels. On the other hand, till the guidelines are in location, leases can be entered into “devoid of public notice, devoid of public comment, and devoid of bidding or oversight by the commission to defend the public interest.”
As opposed to New York, which banned fracking primarily based on various wellness research, Ohio has embraced the sector with open arms and a lack of attitude toward regulations that defend the land, air, water and wellness of citizens. Our state lands are now open to oil and gas extraction and we face an not possible job: to attempt to preserve our forests and parks from the mining sector. At the commission’s February meeting, Ohioans requested a minimum comment period of 60 days, advance notice of parcels becoming thought of, facts about the parcels which includes maps and components thought of in generating choices.
I attended the commission meeting on March 1, but citizens have been forbidden to speak and ask concerns. As an alternative, most of the meeting was offered to the Muskingum Watershed Conservation District (MVCD), discussing their quite profitable extended-term collaboration with the oil and gas sector and their template for lease agreements.
Although MVCD claims their mission is flood mitigation, conservation and recreation, soon after their presentation, you could inform their mission is to make cash, lots of cash. In reality, “no one particular has benefited financially like the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District The initially user of drilling in Ohio.”
MVCD has created millions of dollars in water sales, fracking leases and royalties. In addition, MVCD collects costs from boaters working with the lakes, dwelling rentals, park costs, timber monies and costs from flood protection assessments.
Citing the MVCD royalty variety (18%-20%) as a template, the commission set 12.five% as the minimum charge for government land, saying they “most likely leave dollars on the table.” There is no query that our state lands are viewed as a supply of cash, not public lands exactly where Ohioans can love nature or exactly where biodiversity is protected. Ohioans personal these lands and tax dollars help these agencies, but it is doubtful we’ll have a seat at the table when it comes to deciding which lands can be leased.
Muskingum’s Land Manager Nate Wilson described how their (MVCD) leases “call for further setbacks (three,000 feet), testing and further accident containment facilities.” But their contribution to the method ends there. The Ohio Division of Organic Sources has shown that they lack the capacity to enforce violations or impose fines, and the sector rewards from exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Secure Drinking Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and Emergency Organizing and Neighborhood Rights – To Know Act.
MVCD Executive Director Craig Butler mentioned they (MVCD) “don’t place surface building on MVCD land, but we have access to the pipeline and access to the gathering line and water mains and these forms of points. It is nonetheless unclear no matter whether our state lands will be impacted by the drilling pads. Firms may well be capable to use a “specific written surface use agreement” to develop wells on government land.
The widespread use of higher-stress hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has turned rural places of SE Ohio into industrial zones. I travel along Routes 151, 250 and 646 in the Lake Tappan region of the MVCD watershed and see endless pipelines cutting down the hillsides. Nicely pads, access roads, water withdrawal lines and infrastructure engulf the landscape. Is this what we want for our state lands?
Lots of Ohioans pick to reside in rural places since of the beauty that the forests and hills present. Accurate stewards of the atmosphere defend valuable sources for future generations they do not destroy them for economic achieve. No quantity of cash or extravagant marina is worth exposing our youngsters to toxic chemical substances and pollution from unregulated sector. Our rural communities have come to be victim zones at the mercy of the fossil fuel sector.
Proponents of fracking only praise the monetary achieve and continue to ignore the extended-term wellness effects linked with fracking. They ignore the raise in methane emissions that are fueling climate transform and contributing to the collapse of ecosystems about the planet. They permit radioactive leachate to enter our waterways. They ignore the millions of gallons of radioactive manufactured water and carcinogenic chemical substances that travel our nation roads each and every day. Accidents involving trucks and tankers elevated 14 % in Ohio’s fracking places.
The current train derailment in eastern Palestine reminds us how very easily one particular error can permanently transform the lives of thousands of individuals and tarnish the atmosphere forever. Till Ohio puts wellness, security and a clean atmosphere ahead of the interests of the fossil fuel sector, we can only wonder what will be left of our state lands and rural communities soon after this rush to fracking.
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Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., of Uhrichsville, is a retired analysis chemist who volunteers with Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action. She has a PhD in environmental research and is certified in hazardous supplies regulations.






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