Teresa Mills, tmills@benohio.org
Recording of the call can be found here
Columbus, OH - Today, on a press call with impacted residents and legal experts, national and Ohio-based community organizations and environmental groups discussed their petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would revoke Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) primacy for Class II injection wells.
The petition comes after years of ODNR’s failure to its communities to (1) meet basic requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act that are designed to protect underground sources of drinking water and public health and (2) carry out its environmental justice obligations under federal laws and Executive Orders for Class II disposal wells in the state of Ohio. This has resulted in a failure to protect environmental justice communities located in Appalachian Ohio or to ensure oil and gas operators pay the full price of their waste disposal.
These wells are disproportionately located in low-income Appalachian communities and harbor dangerous toxins like radioactive materials (e.g. Radium 226 & 228), PFAS, extremely high levels of salts, benzene, barium, and more.
“News that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has recently approved the requested permit from Arrowhead Road Services for a second Class II injection well in the community of Little Hocking (western Washington County OH) is vivid testimony to the fact that to ODNR officials, the publicly expressed concerns of local residents mean nothing in their approval process,” George Banziger, Washington County, Ohio resident said. “ODNR has managed its permitting process in a non-transparent fashion, ignoring the concerns of residents of the area impacted regarding the risks of transport of toxic and radioactive brine waste through their communities, air pollution impacts, damaging effects on existing oil and gas production wells, and risks to local sources of drinking water. In my view and in the view of many people in Ohio and in Washington County, ODNR has rendered itself incompetent and incapable of properly reviewing permit requests and of effectively monitoring Class II injection wells in the state.”
“Everyone has the right to clean air, clean water, and a safe place to live and work. Ohio shouldn't be selling those rights cheap to the oil and gas industry who are lying to its residents about the dangers,” said Retired Youngstown Fire Battalion Chief, HazMat Specialist, Silverio Caggiano.
Despite changing the process for public hearings with ODNR that would require hearings at the request of the public body – the public’s opinion is still null and void in this sham process. In the end, regulators still don’t act after the public’s input on safety issues and concerns,” Lenny Eliason, Athens County Commissioner said. “ODNR’s enforcement is slow or non-existent – we have had opened wells for a number of years that are supposed to be closed down and covered up, but this process was never done. So why is it that in Ohio it’s easier and quicker to get a well permitted than it is in states that are regulated by the federal EPA? For these many reasons it is important to take our experiences into account in evaluating whether or not primacy should be removed from Ohio.”
Anton Krieger with Buckeye Environmental Network said, “If you were to work in the communities where oil and gas waste is affecting the health and wellbeing of its residents, you’d be devastated to hear the horror stories they’d tell you. Injection wells, spreading oil and gas waste on the roads, radioactive waste facilities, they all have to go because the industry will just keep leaching onto new communities.”
“Ohio has consistently failed its residents in protecting underground sources of drinking water, public health, and environmental justice communities,” Sierra Club Campaign Representative Shelly Corbin said. “Oil and gas companies have been allowed to run amuck, racking up violations without enforcement actions taken. The Ohio government is supposed to be accountable to Ohioans, not the fossil fuel industry, and it is their job to protect the people. It’s time to hold our regulators and oil and gas companies accountable in order to protect the public’s health and the environment.”
“Until EPA requires Ohio to correct the deficiencies identified in the petition, Ohio will continue to manage its Class II program in a manner that endangers underground sources of drinking water, disproportionately impacts low-income Appalachian Ohioans, and deprives those most impacted by Class II disposal wells of the opportunity to participate in major decisions,” said James Yskamp, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “We’re calling on EPA to use its oversight ability to reclaim enforcement authority over Class II injection wells in the State and protect Ohio’s communities and underground sources of drinking water.”
The petition, filed by the Buckeye Environmental Network, Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and 30 community organizations, aims to ensure that the decision making process over injecting harmful, radioactive liquids that could end up in Ohio’s waterways considers the communities most impacted and our environment.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.