COMMENTARY

Fight to prevent fracking giveaway is not over

6/23/2012

It's not over.

Energy legislation, custom-made for the natural-gas and oil industry, sailed through the Republican-controlled General Assembly in Columbus this year. Gov. John Kasich happily signed it. But a groundswell of statewide activism is spreading in opposition.

Many people are dismayed at how quickly lawmakers approved industry demands about regulating hydraulic fracturing of shale natural gas deposits. Political leaders even agreed to open state parks to the controversial drilling practice.

Better late than never, Ohioans have become aware that the devil is in the details. Nagging fears about known health and environmental dangers associated with "fracking" and the reckless disposal of its wastewater have prompted local pushback.

So has grass-roots fury over the lopsided advantage the state gave industry at public expense.

Recently, hundreds of Ohioans converged on Columbus to protest the practice of extracting shale gas reserves that run under nearly half the state. Some want fracking banned; others want flawed regulations fixed.

Jack Shaner, deputy director of the Ohio Environmental Council, gives Mr. Kasich credit for solid safety rules and good intentions in his wish-list of energy regulations. But in the end, he says, what started out strong ended up weak.

"It's a disappointing law," Mr. Shaner said. "Nobody has the right to appeal the terms and conditions in drilling permits issued by the natural resources department, but companies have the right to appeal if a permit is denied."

Limited disclosure of the chemical recipe used by gas companies to fracture rock containing oil and gas was a big setback for transparency. "Fracking companies can hide which chemicals they use in the fracking process (even from regulators) by calling them 'trade secrets,' " reported EcoWatch, a Cleveland environmental organization.

"What little they do disclose," the group said in a statement, "is 60 days after drilling takes place, too late for communities to test to show what was in their water before drilling, rendering disclosure meaningless."

The secrecy that surrounds some fracking compounds makes it virtually impossible to hold companies accountable, Mr. Shaner said, or to identify a chemical culprit in case of emergency, illness, or contaminated groundwater. Residents and landowners are handicapped by not knowing the ingredients ahead of time.

Lack of information blunts opposition to drilling permits before they're issued. Testing of well-water quality before drilling is compromised by not knowing what chemicals to test for.

Of equal concern is the disposal of fracking wastewater produced in Ohio and trucked in from other states where injection wells are banned. Polluted aquifers and man-made seismic events have been linked to the injected wastewater.

If the coming frack-fest requires more injection wells in Ohio to accommodate more drilling, what will the long-term effect be on the environment? If the gas industry has balked at paying even modest state fees and taxes in return for unlimited profits, what will they pay to clean up the messes they create?

"The big question people are beginning to ask about the new law is how the health and safety of local communities will be impacted," Progress-Ohio executive director Brian Rothenberg told me. Industry money and influence wrote Ohio energy policy rules to benefit business, but "we have to be proactive with rule-making to promote health and water quality issues," he said.

Passage of the energy bill is not the end of the process. A coalition of groups committed to protecting the public and precious natural resources is mobilizing to seek to revise some rules and reduce the risk that oil and gas operations pose to communities and Ohio's landscape.

"Just as Governor Kasich has not given up on his effort to raise taxes on the industry, we, too, are not giving up on efforts to make [fracking] safer," Mr. Shaner said.

Watch the "Stop Fracking Ohio" signs proliferate. It's not over.

Marilou Johanek is a columnist for The Blade.

Contact her at: mjohanek@theblade.com