READ HERE
Click to read our White Paper,
The Risks to the Greater Columbus Water Supply from Oil & Gas Production
Compiled and presented by the Columbus Community Rights Coalition (CCRC), this important and informative White Paper details the history of the oil & gas industry in Ohio, its risk to the Columbus water supply, and the steps to take to protect Greater Columbus’s water sources.
Click to review our 2023 monitoring study on water quality of the Columbus water supply’s watershed.
Click HERE to read Bill Lyon’s May 2022 article ‘Oil and Gas Brine in Ohio’, published in FracTracker Alliance and in Counterpunch.
Click HERE to read our latest newsletter.
The immediate need for local legislation to keep oil and gas production wastes away from the city’s crucial resources is seen especially now – in April of 2021, the Ohio statehouse has brought a new attempt to deregulate radioactive oil & gas “brines”.
You can read more about how dangerous these “brines” are on our Surface Brine Disposals page.
Residents Call On State Attorney General and 9 County Prosecuting Attorneys to Launch Criminal Investigations into Radioactive Pollution of Drinking Water in Ohio
Read more from Ohio Community Rights Network by clicking on the logo below
Franklin County Board of Commissioners created a resolution that disapproves of brine spreading on county surfaces, thanks to CCBOR’s Bill Lyons.
You can read the resolution HERE…
On the left is our new logo for our tax-exempt non-profit ‘Columbus Community Rights Coalition’. Click the Donate button to visit our donate page and decide which organization(s) you would like to make your donation to.
DEMOCRACY SQUELCHED
CCBOR sues, but court sides with city hall’s status quo to quash direct democracy during the pandemic
On March 14th, 2020, Columbus Community Bill of Rights suspended our public signature-gathering operations to honor the safety of the Central Ohio public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since our small volunteer army has gathered close to 9,000 signatures toward our goal, we have asked the Columbus city government to support our local participatory democracy by keeping our initiative alive through extending the city’s unusual petition deadline, or by city council placing it on the November ballot themselves. They have refused our requests.
Click HERE to visit our initiative page and read THE LATEST!
Watch and Act!
Community Rights
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) advocates for empowering residents to become decision makers while adding a layer of protection for peoples’ most basic rights and the rights of ecosystems. Read more …
Rights of Nature
New interpretations are being created that formulate the rights of ecosystems to exist and thrive. Learn about how regions around the world are making room for ecosystems to be protected within their system of laws. Read more …
What is Fracking?
Visit our page with a basic explanation of the fracking process.
Frack Waste
The process of Fracking produces solid and liquid waste. This liquid waste is laden with toxic chemicals and is radioactive from materials that occur naturally in the underground shale formations.
Samples of Fracking Waste have contained levels of radiation over 3,600 times what experts say is safe for drinking water. Fracking fluid can be released into the environment through waste disposal, leaks, spills and other accidents. A report published on Oct 2, 2013 by Duke University tested river waters in Pennsylvania and found dangerous levels of radioactivity at a water treatment facility. This report exposes the risks of disposing the escalating amount of fracking waste.
Fracking also produces solid waste, such as drill cuttings, mud, dirt and used frack sand. This waste can also be contaminated with radioactive material. Frack waste from PA can contain high levels of Radium 226, which is prevalent in their Marcellus shale formation. A truck was rejected from a PA landfill after setting off radiation alarms.
Click HERE or on the banner below to view a visual presentation from Central Ohio geologist Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice on the science behind the radium the exists in these wastes.
Click HERE or on the image to the right, to visit our Injection Wells pages to learn more about how Columbus’s water continues to be put at risk
Click on the image above to access FracTracker.org’s latest interactive map showing ‘Ohio Source Water and Oil, Gas and Waste Wells’.
All Landfills Leak
Toxic chemicals and radioactive elements leak from landfills into our rivers and streams through our ground water and can contaminate our water supply.
The Document that Convinced Governor Cuomo to Ban Fracking in New York
Read more … Radiation – the Fracking Nightmare
A comprehensive report released by radiation expert Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, in June 2013, outlines the serious dangers of radioactive frack waste in the state of Ohio and the impact to water supplies.
“Even though fracking in Ohio is not yet occurring at intense levels as in other states, the state has been victim to the process especially because the state is making itself available as a dumping ground for the waste from other places, such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia,” he said. “Both liquid and solid fracking waste — of radioactive nature — is trucked across state lines to Ohio landfills and processed to take to wastewater treatment plants for disposal.” The Marcellus shale in PA is one of the most radioactive of all of the nation’s shales, containing high levels of Radium-226.
Radioactive waste is classified into two categories: Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, or NORM, and Technically Enhanced Radiacitve Material. TENORM is NORM that has been technically enhanced through industrial practices.
With the passage of the Ohio Budget bill in June of 2013, the state has changed the definition of TENORM, and does not consider drill cuttings or brine from fracking sites to be in this category or subject to testing for radiation. This material can now be disposed of in any of Ohio’s licensed municipal solid waste landfills. Drilling muds – classified as “TENORM”- can also be disposed of in a solid waste landfill, if it contains less than five pico curries per gram of radioactive content. If the material tests high – over the 5 pico curies – it can be mixed or “down blended” with soil, sawdust, or other material to dilute the radioactive material content for disposal.
Click HERE to read ‘America’s Radioactive Secret’, the story in Rolling Stone Magazine about oil and gas waste and its radioactive legacy.
Click HERE to watch Justin Nobel, author of ‘‘America’s Radioactive Secret’, speak about the issue (10 minutes).
Watch Markie Miller, of Toledoans for Safe Water, on ‘The Daily Show’ in an interview about the fight to turn Lake Erie into a person.