Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
11/21/2014
Two environmental activist groups in the state of Ohio filed a lawsuit this week against Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the alleged illegal approval of at least 23 fracking waste handling, storage, processing and recycling facilities. The groups, the Fresh Water Accountability Project and Food & Water Watch, said the state ignored its official rulemaking process by denying a public comment period for the facilities. The state authorized “Chief’s Orders,” which enabled the by-pass, the groups said. “It truly is unfortunate that the only remedy that can now be sought is through the courts once again,” FWAP Managing Director Lea Harper said in a statement. “These facilities are an imminent threat to public health. Once the fracking boom becomes a bust, it will be the Ohio taxpayer that pays the price for clean-up and health costs. We are doing everything we can to avoid that.” She added, “It is disheartening to see that in order to get our politicians and regulators to take us seriously in Ohio, it takes a lawsuit to stand out against the corporate monetary influence from the fracking industry.” The ODNR did not return calls for comment this week.
In the past decade, increased activity in oil and gas exploration, especially in the Marcellus Shale and Bakkan Shale formations, has increased volumes of Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) waste. This increase has resulted in states shipping the waste out-of-state for disposal in landfills with higher thresholds for volumes and concentrations like in Ohio, drawing the ire of local citizens. According to the groups, so far this year, over 15 million barrels of liquid fracking waste have been disposed of in Ohio, and current regulations do not offer the transparency to follow where and how much solid waste is being disposed of in state.
According to the groups, they have appealed to ODNR, Governor Kasich and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the lack of public comment, as well as the need for better transparency, but they have been rebuked at every step. “The ODNR has unlawfully moved forward to approve these facilities without the input of the public, which these rules are intended to protect in the first place,” Food & Water Watch’s Alison Auciello said in a statement. “For loosely regulated frack waste processing and dumping to be allowed on such a huge scale spells disaster for Ohio. If the state is requiring sampling to prove that the waste isn’t above established thresholds for radioactive waste dumping, then why can’t the public obtain those samples? It is a sad commentary on our legislature and regulatory bodies that it takes a lawsuit for the citizens of the state to protect themselves.”