The Dangerous Ohio Brine Bill That Will Not Die

In 2018, Ohio state legislators started sponsoring bills that would “commoditize” the use of oil and gas brines, so that a product consisting of oil and gas brines could be sold without a permit. Test markets had it on the shelves of hardware outlets, sold in plastic bottles labeled as a corrosion inhibited liquid deicer and dust supressant.
Many concerned Ohio residents testified at hearings before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, opposing HB 393 and exposing ODNR test data that revealed egregious levels of radionuclides in the substance. The bill never made it to a vote.
In 2020, the brine bill was back as HB 545. You can read the Buckeye Environmental Network HB 545 fact sheet HERE.
Thanks to many Ohio residents testifying before the committee again, the bill did not make it to a vote.
In 2021, we had SB 171 and its sister bill HB 282 in the Ohio house. These bills were on fast track, SB 171 being introduced on 4/7/2021 and HB 282 on 5/3/2021. SB 171 was introduced by Senator Frank Hoagland, the Steubenville legislator who introduced the first ALEC-originated cookie-cutter anti-oil/gas infrastructure-protest bill into the legislature in 2017, called the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act.
The difference from previous brine bills is that it stipulates an allowable limit to radium, which is sky high and exceeds all EPA limit guidelines by a factor of hundreds! It would allow for substances to be discharged on Ohio surfaces with levels as high as:
Click HERE to view and download the latest BRINE FACTSHEET from Buckeye Environmental Network.