Press Releases
Congressional Testimony
Monday, 27 February 2012

 

Nathan Johnson
Staff Attorney
Buckeye Forest Council
Testimony on “Natural Gas – America’s New Energy Opportunity: Creating Jobs, Energy and Community Growth”

 

February 27, 2012

 

Chairman Lamborn, Ranking Member Holt, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you and good morning.

My name is Nathan Johnson.  I am the staff attorney for the Buckeye Forest Council, a 501(c)(3) public interest organization.  I speak on behalf of Buckeye Forest Council today.  The Buckeye Forest Council (BFC) is a membership-based, grassroots organization dedicated to protecting Ohio’s native forests and their inhabitants.  We seek to instill in Ohioans a sense of personal connection to and responsibility for Ohio's native forests and to challenge the exploitation of land, wildlife and people.

I am here today to remark on the need for adequate analysis of deep shale development on Ohio’s public lands and for adequate health and environmental safety standards regarding the same.  Ohioans want jobs, but we want healthy families and a clean environment, too.  There is nothing incompatible about jobs and adequate protection.

However, Ohio currently lacks adequate health and safety standards to protect the public and our land from the potential water, soil, and air pollution generated by a rapidly growing shale industry in the state.  For example, Ohio law does not require any pre-drilling water testing or water monitoring requirements in rural areas.  Ohio law allows shale gas drilling sites to store toxic wastewater in open pits with no fencing.  These pits attract and kill wildlife, including large numbers of bats and birds.  Nothing in Ohio law prevents the burial of contaminated drill cuttings on site, and Ohio law allows highly toxic oil and gas field waste to be spread on community roads for dust and ice control.

 

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Brine Spraying Lists Released
Thursday, 10 November 2011

Is Hazardous Fracking Wastewater Being Sprayed On Your Community Roadways?

Through BFC public records requests, we now have a comprehensive list of all Ohio political subdivisions (counties, cities, towns, and townships) that spray fracking brine on their roadways.  Please visit the link below to see if your community is on the list.

Political Subdivision Brine Applications:

http://bit.ly/Atg9xh

Note that the second tab of this document also contains the complete list of localities that allow private companies to spray brine on their roadways.  The information contained in this second list is additional to, and not contained in, the first political subdivisions tab.

Section 1509.226 of the Ohio Revised Code allows political subdivisions to authorize brine spraying on local roads for dust and ice control purposes.  However, under ORC Section 1509.226, political subdivisions must pass an authorizing resolution before any brine spraying can occur.  We strongly encourage concerned citizens to press their local governing bodies to repeal any brine application resolutions that are currently on the books.

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Wayne National Forest up for Grabs
Monday, 03 October 2011

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 3, 2011

 

Contact:

Nathan Johnson, 614-949-6622 - nathan@buckeyeforestcouncil.org

Heather Cantino, 740-594-3338, heather.cantino@gmail.com

  BLM Planning To Lease Wayne National Forest For Oil And Gas Drilling

ATHENS, OHIO – The Bureau of Land Management plans to lease 3,302 acres of the Wayne National Forest for oil and gas development.  The BLM will be auctioning off five parcels of the Wayne on December 7, 2011 at their offices in Springfield, Virginia.  For those wishing to protest the sales, formal protest letters must be faxed to the BLM office at (703) 440-1551 by close of business on Friday, October 7.

BLM documents show that three of the five parcels, totaling 2623 acres, are in Athens County along the Hocking River and closeby tributaries. Another, in Perry County, is over 528 acres and one in Gallia County about 151 acres.  The Athens County and Perry County parcels sit atop the Utica shale, which the oil and gas industry is currently developing using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

Government officials, local residents and community organizations are concerned that fracking on the Wayne along the Hocking River could result in significant environmental damage to the local water supplies as well as the forest itself.  “The aquifer that feeds Athens, the Burr Oak Water District, and the Le-Ax Water District appears to underlie several of the parcels,” said Heather Cantino, Athens City resident and Board Chair of the Buckeye Forest Council.  “Local officials and residents are concerned that water withdrawals of millions of gallons of water per well from the Hocking and our aquifer and pollution from spills, leaks, and chemical injections will threaten our drinking water. Our cities do not have the resources to monitor or remediate radioactive and toxic pollution,” Cantino added.

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