Ohio's New Fracking Regulations

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has announced a new set of rules for hydraulic fracturing (frac) disposal, spurred in part by the recent decision and announcement that fracking brine injection at waste water disposal sites caused a series of earthquakes near Youngstown, Ohio.

According to the ODNR, the new rules are among the toughest brine dumping rules in the nation. The new rules apply to new injection well sites as well as existing waste water injection sites.

A Brief Summary of Ohio's New Brine Injection Rules

• No new wells will be permitted to be drilled into the Precambrian basement rock formation.
• Existing wells going into the Precambrian basement rock formation will have to be capped with cement - or more accurately - the ODNR will have the authority to require their capping.
• Operators (drillers) will be required to submit extensive geological data before drilling under the new rules.
• The new regulations require up to date, effective pressure and volume monitoring devices; to include automatic shut-off switches and electronic data recorders.
• Under the new rules, brine haulers will be required to install electronic transponders, thereby ensuring “cradle to grave” monitoring of all shipments.

The full report is available on the ODNR website.

A Few New Links About Fracking

I apologize for the brevity of this post, but I want to share these links tonight.

The first link is to an article about the debate over fracking brine injection wells slated for Mansfield, Ohio's industrial park. The News Journal article has a couple of errors in the data presented, so be sure to check out the comments at the end of the article as one of the readers presented the correct data.

The second link is a Scientific American article describing the "fugitive methane" from hydro-fracture natural gas drilling (greenhouse gas emissions.)

The third link is an EcoWatch article, reviewing a Cornell study that found a link between fracking brine and farm animal mutations and mortality

The fourth link I want to share with you tonight goes to an Ohio.com article. This article explains that the federal Agency for Substances and Disease Registry, which is part of the US CDC,  says the water contamination in two Medina, Ohio wells (which are now potentially explosive) near fracking sites appears to be connected to the drilling, even though the ODNR says there is no connection. ASDR also noted that "current conditions are likely to pose a public health threat."

Mansfield Ohio Resists Fracking Brine Dumping

The city of Mansfield is reevaluating the plans to allow construction of two fracking brine injection wells, slated to be installed in the industrial park within city limits.

According to a report on Reuters, city officials plan to require testing, paid for by the company bringing in the brine - Preferred Fluids Management, and therefore cutting into the company's bottom line.

A 2004 law complicates matters for the city because the law hands jurisdiction to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

Possibly, the city of Mansfield and other affected communities will find some assistance by looking to the past, to a higher court, such as the findings of the 1974 Belle Terre Supreme Court case where the Court upheld a community's right to create zoning on certain quality of life issues on a case-by-case basis:

•  "The Court listed as considerations bearing on the constitutionality of zoning ordinances the danger of fire or collapse of buildings, the evils of overcrowding people, and the possibility that "offensive trades, industries, and structures" might "create nuisance" to residential sections."

Fracking Brine Coming to Mansfield, Ohio

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about fracking brine injection wells slated for inner-Mansfield.

According to the latest news in The Mansfield News Journal, the Mansfield City Law Director has informed concerned citizens attempting to fight the propesed injection sites they have no legal standing.

Again, according to the News Journal article, Spon, the City Law Director, is working to help concerned citizens while taking the calming approach of somewhat downplaying the significance of using the inner-city industrial park site as a dumping ground for fracking brine, stating that the issue is not fracking itself, and is simply fracking-related brine.

The points that are easy to overlook in this issue are:

• This is not a salt-water brine like your grandmother would have used to make pickles, this is the same toxin-filled brine that is used for fracking. Calling it fracking-related brine  does not change what it is.
• It only takes one small bubble in the injection well's concrete casing to allow a toxic cocktail to leak out into the local water supply. (Have you ever seen concrete that didn't have at least one small bubble?)
• The injection well casing only goes so far down, so after that depth it only takes one weak spot in the underlying ground (something no one among us can control) to allow a leak.
• The fact that Ohio already has 184 of these deep-well fracking brine injection sites, dumps the stuff on the roadway to control ice and dusts, and (in some counties) coats road salt with it does not mean it is safe. (Is it honestly safe or have Ohioans so far simply been lucky there have been no larger problems?) In fact, if, like most everything else that affects human life, the fracking brine toxins have a cumulative effect... well, it's accumulating - you can fill in the rest.

So I'll end this post with a link to the original post on this site and another to the News Journal article, Mansfield Can't Fight Fracking Waste Wells, covering this so you can check out the original source if you want to, and a wish for Mansfield residents and all of us, that a safe resolution for disposing of fracking brine can be found before it's too late.

Do Residents Living Near Fracking Brine Injection Sites Have the Right to Debate the Issue?

What rights do local governmental leaders and citizens have when it comes to potentially toxic waste being dumped in proximity to their homes?

Say Goodbye to Your Rights?

According to a report in the Mansfield News Journal, an attorney for the company (Preferred Fluids Management of Austin, Texas) that has proposed two injection sites in Mansfield, Ohio's industrial park, citizens and city leaders have absolutely no rights.

Who Gets to Decide for You?

The PFM attorney states that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mineral Resources Management has sole jurisdiction and the city can neither limit nor prohibit the injection sites if the state's ODNR opts to allow the sites.

Zoning

It is also stated that the industrial park's zoning (general impact industrial use) allows the injection wells - further depleting rights of Mansfield, Ohio citizens.

Is the Brine Toxic?

The News Journal report also notes that the sites would be accepting up to 150,000 barrels of non-toxic fluid per month. The non-toxic part of the claim is interesting in light of the EPA's recent findings of contaminated groundwater from monitoring wells the agency set near hydro-fractured wells.