Fracking in Ohio

By Stacey Barnes
OHIO-Contaminated drinking water, illness and air pollution are some concerns Ohio residents are hearing about from residents of states that border the southeast portion of Ohio. Chris Chmiel, founder of Integration Farms in Athens Ohio says, he attended a meeting last year where women from a Pennsylvania dairy farmer allege their water wells were contaminated due to oil drilling. Chmiel says the women told a crowd of Ohioans that they believe the contamination causes human skin rashes and fur loss for some of their farm animals.I am concerned about the health of my family and the animals, Chmiel said. This is a real complex issue and Im not sure the best interest of the citizens is being considered, he said. Since 2011 residents of Athens Ohio and surrounding areas have attended public meetings to learn from residents of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York State how oil drilling has affected their communities. There are also scores of YouTube videos that show accounts from people who allege water well contamination, air pollution and illness they attribute to recent increases in oil drilling on the Marcellus Shale, a sedimentary rock that contains natural oil and gas vapors that is being extracted and refined into petroleum. The rock that extends some 7,000 to 9,000 feet underground is common to Southeast Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and some parts of the state of New York. Drilling for oil in those areas has increased since 2010 and is raising concerns in Ohio residents about the impact of oil drilling. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Program is responsible for monitoring and regulating oil drilling in Ohio. According to the 2011 Oil and Gas Summary of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, 690 drilling permits were issued in 2011 and about 460 of those were in 42 of Ohios 88 counties. All total the report says that there was a six percent increase in permits issued for drilling on the shale from 2010 and that 588 of the permits issued in 2011 were for new drilling activities and 102 were re-issued permits. According to Tom Tomastik, a geologist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), most of the concerns about drilling for oil in Ohio is due to a type of drilling, hydraulic fracturing, that requires 2-6 million gallons of water, sand and chemicals per drilling site and results in about one million gallons of left over water that requires proper treatment and disposal. Helen Horn of Athens Ohio worries about the impact drilling for oil and air pollutants will have on her 50 acre farm. She is aware of hydraulic fracturing, nicknamed fracking, because her sister-in-law is voicing concerns about fracking in Oregon. In a video on YouTube Horn expresses her fears and even sings a song her sister-in-law wrote to discourage fracking in Oregon.

In an interview with Horn she says, I made the video to increase awareness in Ohio. Horn says she has not yet been impacted by oil drilling but she wants to make sure people keep up with the issue in order to keep fracking out of Ohio. Tomastik says there is already hydraulic fracturing or fracking for oil in Ohio. This is not new. We have been merging two existing technologies from the oil and gas industry for the last fifteen years," Tomastick says. According to Tomastik, the merging of technologies involves a more commonly known process of drilling straight down into the ground to tap oil resources some 7,000 to 9,000 feet underground. The seemingly new part of technology involves drilling down and then across to extract natural oil and gas from larger areas using one drill site. The across drilling is called hydraulic fracturing or fracking, Tomastik says. Dana Bohan, staff geologist for Energy In Depth, a national energy research and education organization, says drilling of more than 1.2 million oil wells has been completed in Ohio using the hydraulic fracturing method. Bohan said, Ohioans need to begin a fact-based dialogue about oil drilling and its processes. To date there has been no contamination of groundwater as a result of hydraulic fracturing Bohan says. Most important to Ohioans is that ODNRs report shows increase of 23 percent in deep well permits issued in Ohio and ODNR expects that to continue to increase. The ODNR website advises that vertical drilling permits are no longer necessary due to the increases in horizontal permit requests. Melanie Houston of the Ohio Environmental Council says the council is requesting a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Ohio. We at the OEC believe that we need to stop, slow down, and take a time out from the permitting of horizontal fracking wells in Ohio until we know that the proper safeguards are in place to protect the health of Ohioans and the health of our environment, Houston said.

Side Bar:

Photo: Environmental Protection Agency

Map of Marcellus Shale area

Image: earthworks.org

What is hydraulic fracturing or fracking? Hydraulic fracturing is an oil drilling process that requires up to six million gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals to inject in underground rock called shale to fracture the rock in order to release natural oil or gas vapors. The vapors are processed and created into petroleum used for gasoline and as a source of energy. The proprietary chemicals, an undisclosed mixture of chemical ingredients, are central to the concerns of most anti-fracking groups.
Contact Information: Chris Chmiel, Athens Ohio 740-698-6060 Melanie Houston -Ohio Environmental Council 614-487-7506 Helen Horn Athens, Ohio 740-698-8625 Tom Tomastik, Ohio Department of Natural ResourcesDana Bohan Energy In Depth - 202-346-8845 Resources: http://www.energyindepth.org/whats-eid/ http://www.theoec.org/ http://www.ohiodnr.com/oil/shale/tabid/23174/Default.aspx http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/hydrofracturing_faq.pdf http://ohiodnr.com/portals/11/publications/pdf/oilgas11.pdf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or9gUeukgXQ