Fracking in Ohio: Environmental Impacts & Regulatory Failures

Nathan Johnson

Attorney

[email protected]

Fracking in Ohio:Environmental Impacts

& Regulatory Failures

Ohio Environmental Council

Our Mission:

To secure healthy air,

land, and water for all

who call Ohio home.

Ohio’s Public Lands

Blacklick Woods MetroPark

Ohio ranks 7th in the nation in population, but a mere 47th in public land available per capita.

We need to protect what little public natural resources we have left.

OH Public Lands

HB 133 (2011) opened State Parks to oil and gas drilling for first time in their history.

Centralized leasing authority in new Leasing Commission. (State universities and other state agencies no longer have final say over leases).

New nomination process allows for public comment.

Headline in Yesterday’s Dispatch

Ohio House bill

would ease fracking

in state parks

Unitization

HB 8:

Notwithstanding divisions (A) to (H) of section 1509.73 of the Revised Code and rules adopted under it, the chief shall issue an order for the unit operation of a pool or a part of a pool that encompasses a unit are a consisting in whole or in part of oil or natural resources owned or controlled by the state or a political subdivision of the state.

General Overview

As of June 21,

2014:

Total wells

permitted = 1,408

Total wells

drilled = 952

Potential for serious impacts to...

public health, environment, quality of life

Risks to Water Quality

• Cornell University study

– “An uncontrolled health experiment on an enormous scale”

• Duke University study

– Found methane concentrations 17X higher in drinking water wells closer to natural gas wells

• Akron Beacon Journal

– 1 million pounds of chemicals used at a single well site

More Chemicals

Conventional: 700 to 2,800 lbs. of chemical additives per frack.

HVHHF: 205,000 to 935,000 lbs. per frack.

Typical 7-well site could receive 4 million lbs. of chemicals.

More Toxic Wastewater

Amount Generated

1 Shale Wellpad = 1,000 traditional wells

Growth in Injected Waste

In 2010 OH hosted 151 injection wells, which received 50.1 Million Gallons (MGs) per quarter in total – or 331,982 gallons per well.

Now, this area has 194 injection wells accepting 937.5 MGs in total and an average of 4.3 MGs per well.

Image courtesy of Ted Auch of FracTracker Alliance

Brine Out of State

Ohio's Utica wells only account for 13% of the brine injected in our Class II wells since Utica in Ohio began producing in 2011.

Translation 87% of brine waste injected has come from out of state.

Injection Wells

A ProPublica review of well records, case histories and government summaries of more than 220,000 well inspections found that structural failures inside injection wells are routine. From late 2007 to late 2010, one well integrity violation was issued for every six deep injection wells examined — more than 17,000 violations nationally.

Injection Wells

Roughly half of the injection well test failuresanalyzed by ProPublica involved what federal water protection regulations describe as "fluid migration" and "significant leaks."

Where Else Does Fracking Brine Go?

Our Roads…

Brine On Roads: A Public Health Risk

ODNR’s brine spreading guide for local authorities notes that Ohio produced brines contain high levels of several toxic contaminants. (Pages 19 and 20): http://ohiodnr.com/Portals/11/publications/pdf/Brine.pdf

The ODNR guide states that typical oil and gas field brines contain 1,070 Mg/l (milligrams per liter) of the radioactive element Strontium, whereas traditional de-icers contain far less at 9.2 Mg/l. Strontium replaces bone calcium and can cause cancer. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/strontium.html

ODNR guide states Cadmium in Ohio brines ranges from 0.4 to 181 ug/l (micrograms per liter), which far exceeds the EPA 5 ug/l maximum contaminant level for drinking water. Cadmium is a known human carcinogen and can cause kidney, lung, and bone damage. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=47&tid=15

USGS analyzed samples of Marcellus Shale brine and found they exceeded safe drinking limit for radioactivity by up to 3,600 times.

Cornell University report mentions family pets dying shortly after licking road applications and wastewater puddles.

High death and stillbirth rates in beef cattle exposed to brine wastewater.

Authorizations in 33 of 88 Counties

Ashland, Ashtabula, Athens, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Fairfield, Geauga, Guernsey, Harrison, Hocking, Holmes, Jefferson, Knox, Licking, Mahoning, Medina, Meigs, Monroe, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Portage, Richland, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Union, Washington, Wayne

Air Pollution

• Colorado School of Public Health:– “Our data show that it is important to

include air pollution in the national dialogue on natural gas development that has focused largely on water exposures to hydraulic fracturing,” said Lisa McKenzie, Ph.D., MPH

– “We also calculated higher cancer risks for residents living nearer to the wells as compared to those residing further [away],” the report said. “Benzene is the major contributor to lifetime excess cancer risk from both scenarios.”

http://attheorefront.ucdenver.edu/?p=2546

More Trucks

National Park Service estimates between 300 and 1,300 truck trips per well.

Other sources estimated between 2,920 and 4,445 truck trips necessary for a three well multi-well pad.

Oil and Gas in the Community

Picture from Broadview Heights, OH

Picture from Broadview Heights, OH

Picture from Broadview Heights, OH

Picture from Broadview Heights, OH

RECENT EXPLOSIONS AND SPILLS

ILLUSTRATE NEED FOR BETTER

REGULATION

Fracking Incidents

Monroe/Morgan County Overview

Morgan County: well blow out and resulting oil spill

pollutes nearby creek.

Well pad fire in Monroe County:

took nearly a week to completely extinguish,

risked firefighter safety,

forced the evacuation of 25 households,

posed a potential risk to drinking water supplies,

killed more than 70,000 fish in a 5-mile long fish kill.

Morgan County

Well Blowout.

100 barrel spill of drilling mud into

an unnamed creek & unknown

amount of wet gas released.

Eisenbarth/Monroe Fire – June & July 2014

Neighbors’ view of fire.

Image courtesy FracTracker

Alliance.

Image courtesy of FracTracker Alliance

Monroe County – Fracking Fire & 5 mile Fish Kill

Opossum Creek

Needed Legislative Fixes - Overview

Incidents Illustrate Need for Better:

Chemical Disclosure

Setbacks

First Responder Funding & Training

Secondary Containment

Chemical Disclosure

Ohio Revised Code, Sec. 1509.10(H) – (J)

Ohio’s Legal “Lockbox” for “Trade Secret” Fracking

Chemicals.

Only diagnosing/treating physicians & ODNR may

require disclosure of proprietary fracking chemicals.

Neither physicians nor ODNR may share proprietary

chemical information with cooperating/interested

agencies, first responders, or drinking water utilities.

Chemical Disclosure

What we need:

Instantaneous disclosure of all fracking chemicals

stored or in use at an oil and gas well upon the

request of a fire department, first responders, or

drinking water authorities.

Setbacks

What we need:

Strengthened minimum distance setbacks

separating all new oil and gas wells from occupied

dwellings, waterways, and other sensitive areas.

First Responders

What we need:

Dedicate revenue from the state oil and gas

severance tax for training and equipment for

emergency response to oil and gas incidents by the

Ohio EPA, local fire departments, and emergency

management agencies.

Secondary Containment

ODNR rules do not require spill prevention and

secondary containment measures at oil + gas wells.

There was no earthen berm at the Monroe Cty. well

pad, contributing to the spill.

ODNR working on well site construction rules, but

NO provisions included for secondary containment.

Image courtesy of FracTracker Alliance

2014 and 2015 Legislation

HB 490: (2014)

House proposed opening all state lands to fracking.

Would include nature preserves;

Includes political subdivisions;

Unitization.

Kasich proposes stronger fracking enforcement.

House eliminates Kasich improvements & hits current law.

Language would have helped emergency responders/public water utilities get chem info.

F E E L F R E E T O C O N TAC T M E :

N J O H N S O N @ T H E O E C . O R G

( 614 ) 487 - 5841

Questions?