Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
Columbus, OH -- Today, a group of concerned Ohio River Valley residents held a meeting with staff from the Ohio EPA and Governor DeWine’s office to raise concerns about the massive proposed petrochemical facility known as an “ethane cracker” in Belmont County.
The project, proposed by PTT Global Chemical, would use byproducts from fracked gas to make plastic. The facility has been issued water pollution discharge permits by the OEPA despite concerns about pollution in the Ohio River, which more than five million people depend on for clean drinking water. The OEPA issued these permits without testing existing levels of toxic chemicals in the Ohio River, leaving the public in the dark about additional pollution from the proposed facility. Recent testing by the Environmental Working Group has revealed that both Cincinnati and Columbus already have dangerous levels of “forever chemicals” like PFAS in their drinking water.
Governor DeWine has repeatedly met with PTTG, but has thus far refused to meet in person with concerned residents about the project. At today’s meeting, the group presented OEPA staff and the governor’s staff with letters laying out their concerns and requests.
“One goal of our meeting with Governor DeWine's staff today was to directly ask the Governor to pull his support of the PTTG ethane cracker plant proposed for Belmont County,” said Bridgeport resident Bev Reed. “As a Belmont County citizen and young person, I feel deeply that investing in more fossil fuel extraction and plastics right at the moment in time when we should be divesting from both is a terrible mistake. Governor DeWine should represent his constituents in Ohio rather than major overseas corporations and pull his support of this project.”
“The regulatory agencies in Ohio are promoting corporate interests over the people’s health and environmental safety. Time and again, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources have let Ohioans down and left us to wallow in industrial filth,” said Barnesville-area resident Jill Hunkler.
“Why are we hearing Governor DeWine on the radio, claiming to be concerned about water quality and contamination from PFAS hot spots, at the same time that he’s having meetings and issuing permits to PTTG plastics polluter?” asked Cincinnati resident and mother Laura Murphy. “He should be protecting our air and drinking water, not allowing our land and river to be fracked, cracked, drained and dumped into oblivion.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to express our concerns about this petrochemical buildout and I'm hopeful this will lead to a meaningful and continuing dialogue with our decision-makers,” said Martins Ferry resident Barb Mew.
“As a materials scientist with knowledge of the trends in both the energy sector and plastics, I cannot foresee long term success in a global scale plastic production investment like the cracker plant,” said Dr. Vincent DeGeorge, materials scientist and president of Barnesville-based Ohio Valley Peace. “An investment of this proposed cracker plant’s magnitude into fossil fuels and plastics, precisely as domestic and global markets are transitioning away from both, will only compound the economic and environmental problems with which our region and world are already struggling."
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