Columbus, Ohio Area Watersheds and Class II Injection Wells
There are 13 active frack waste water injection wells in the Columbus Scioto River watershed.
Click HERE to view the watershed map.
- Frack waste water is radioactive: radium226 up to 3,000x EPA safe drinking water limit.
- Frack waste water contains carcinogens, neurotoxins, and hormone disrupters.
- Frack waste water injection wells cause earthquakes: -8 states including Ohio.
- Ohio alone does not regulate radioactive frack waste drill cuttings.
- Ohio imports frack waste from PA and WV to dump in Ohio injection wells and landfills.
Most of the nearby frack waste water injection wells lie within the Columbus public water’s source water protection area (SWPA).
Click HERE to view the Columbus public water’s source water protection area map. Most wells (shown as pink circles) lie within the Hap Cremean source water area (light green shaded). Click HERE to see the 2020 Ohio injection well map-credit: Ted Auch (Fractracker Alliance)/Teresa Mills (Buckeye Environmental Network).
According to Teresa Mills of Center for Health and Environmental Justice (CHEJ), in 2015 alone, Morrow County injection wells recieved 419,064 gallons of frack “brine” waste.
For more information about our next injection well tour:
Our Injection Well Tours really let Ohio residents understand how inadequate our state regulatory system is. The United States EPA long ago relegated its authority over the regulatory process of injecting oil/gas waste in the state of Ohio to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). This aspect of oil/gas regulation through the ODNR has us very concerned that industry profit concerns are top priority, where the long-term safety of Franklin County drinking water’s watershed suffers a lower priority. This is a crucial reason that citizens in Columbus must create a means to protect our childrens’ childrens’ health, and our natural resources.
In the specific instance of the Mosher Unit well shown here, when this Class II injection well was permitted in 1981, it was stipulated that “upon discontinuance of injection operations, the owner shall apply for a permit to plug and abandon the well. Such well shall be plugged and abandoned within sixty (60) days following discontinuance of operations.” As of August 12, 2017, there is no indication that this well has been plugged, 16 months after the 4/7/2016 date of the plug order.
This is why people like Teresa Mills are so adamant that the US EPA must take over Ohio’s UIC (Underground Injection Control) program from Ohio Department of Natural Resources Oil & Gas Division. The state agency has an extremely poor record of enforcing orders such as this plug order. In the case of the Ginsberg well in Athens County, OH, an original order to plug was created in 1986. Since then, it has not only continued to operate, but has been owned by four operators being cited multiple times for violations, and reports of continued soil contaminations around the well. Veterenarian reports of fish in streams near the well had cancerous tumors, and horses drinking out of a creek near the well were getting sick. Area resident Madeline Ffitch was arrested in 2012, for blocking the entrance of the well to bring attention to the situation, and more generally to the amount of toxic waste Ohio accepts from fracked wells.
Media coverage in Morrow County, Ohio, following our August 12th, 2017 injection well tour:
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- August 21, 2017 – Alberta Stokovic ‘Columbus Citizens’ Group Tours County Injection Wells’
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- August 29, 2017 – Jackie Stewart, state director of Energy In Depth ‘Story About Wells Contained Wrong Information’
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- September 7, 2017 – Greg Pace and CCBOR group ‘Story submitted to editor of Morrow County Sentinel on September 7, 2017 (not published)’
More Resources
- ‘Are Fracking Wastewater Wells Poisoning the Ground Beneath our Feet?’Scientific American, 2012
Excerpt: “Between 2008 and 2011, state regulators reported 150 instances of what the EPA calls “cases of alleged contamination,” in which waste from injection wells purportedly reached aquifers. In 25 instances, the waste came from Class 2 wells. “ - Map of Ohio oil and gas activity Fracktracker Alliance
- 2020 map of Ohio existing and pending injection wells Ted Auch/Fracktracker Alliance & Teresa Mills/Buckeye Environmental Network
- Ohio-2020-HB 545-“Brine Bill” Introduced.pdf
As an alternative to disposing of dangerously-radioactive frack “brines” into Class II injection wells, Ohio has historically allowed individual counties to determine if oil/gas waste “brines” will be spread on rural roadways (dirt/gravel typically), for dust and ice control. A new bill coming before the 2020 Ohio House Energy and Natural Resources committee, HB 545, is to commoditize conventional oil/gas brines, which would open up markets to sell them as products, stocked in hardware stores, as a de-icer product to the general public. Read more here on our home page. - Comments on Ohio-2017-SB165 (previous version of the “Brine Bill”) from local geologist, Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice Submitted as written testimony to the committee on September 20th, 2017.