Environmentalists to protest injection well expansions in Ohio

By Nadia Ramlagan

Anne Vogel, Region 5 administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, plans to visit Marietta College in Washington County next Monday. Clean-water advocates say they plan to bring up issues surrounding injection wells for fracking. That includes their expansion across the state and the harms they pose to local communities.

At a recent town hall meeting, Dee Arnold, a member of Washington County for Safe Drinking Water, said the county is the biggest hotspot in the state for injecting radioactive fracking waste underground.

"The radioactive waste is coming in daily by trucks," Arnold said. "Think of what the consequences could be if a brine truck is in an accident on the highway or spills its content on a street near a school or downtown."

According to Buckeye Environmental Network, more than 3 billion gallons of fracking wastewater has been injected in Washington County alone, and nearly a third of that is located near the town of Marietta’s primary drinking water source. Advocates are pushing for a three-year moratorium on Class One and Class Two injection wells in the county.

Due to federal exemptions, Arnold said, the trucks, trains and other vessels carrying fracking waste aren't even labeled or considered hazardous.

"The industry has enjoyed loopholes for decades because of one single reason," Arnold said. "It would hurt their bottom line if they were to properly label this toxic, radioactive waste."

According to the FracTracker Alliance, there were more than 200 active fracking well operations in Ohio across nine counties. They consumed more than 22 million gallons of water and at least 73,000 pounds of added chemicals.