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.