Facebook report challenges claims that fracking is 'environmentally-friendly'

A new Facebook page monitoring thousands of fracking-related accidents and cleanups happening nearly every day over the last nine years challenges the Ohio gas and oil industry's claims that it's environmentally-friendly.

Report trends indicate a pattern of lax regulation along with superficial attempts to clean up oil, gas and radioactive fracking wastewater from lands and water across the state, according to FracTracker Alliance, a national nonprofit that studies, maps, and communicates the risks and impacts of oil, gas, and petrochemical development.

"These reports also indicate Analog Age levels of data collection, archiving and dissemination about these accidents," said Ted Auch, Midwest program director at FracTracker Alliance. "As the industry continues to move forward with its work at light speed in a decidedly digital age, we have an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) working at a snail's pace. That gap continues to widen, resulting in increasing levels of data obfuscation and larger and larger data gaps."

FracTracker mapped and analyzed 1,400 of 1,500 Ohio gas and oil-related incidents Morgan provided from the ODNR earlier this spring. Its analysis concluded that data showed that oil and gas incidents in the state reported over the past five years — and their level of severity — have been grossly misrepresented.

Creation of the Daily Accident Report

Gas and Oil Facebook page — https://bit.ly/3Xi236X — was sparked in June by Jenny Morgan of Columbus, a Save Ohio Parks steering committee member and longtime fracking waste brine activist, singer, poet and songwriter.

Her deep dive into ODNR's reports on inspections, cleanups and sign-offs onoil and accidents followed a WVXU radio interview in which Rob Brundrett of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association claimed the fracking industry had no indication of any water pollution and called fracking "safe and environmentally friendly."

"Once I began reading each case individually, I was horrified at how many oil and gas-related accidents are happening on a regular basis," said Morgan. "These are reports the ODNR itself has filed. This is an industry that uses dangerous, unregulated chemicals during the fracking process and creates hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated and radioactive waste annually. How are all of these accidents impacting our Ohio land, creeks, plant and animal habitats, biodiversity, drinking water and health?"

Common denominators in the ODNR reports re-posted on Facebook over the past month are: in many cases an oil and gas company self-reports an accident; the ODNR inspects the scene and orders cleanup and soil and water remediation; and the responsible party either cleans up the site cosmetically with foam booms across bodies of water to contain radioactive fracking "produced water," or removes contaminated soil and trucks it to area landfills.

Following is an example of how a seemingly minor fracking truck driver error resulted in a major environmental accident documented by ODNR and re-posted by the Daily Accident Report in its No. 14 entry:

At 9 a.m. on July 11, 2023, an oil and gas contractor's truck backed up into a Hilcorp Energy Fairfield-Tarka 14H wellhead in Columbiana County, causing a pressurized release of natural gas and about 630 to 840 gallons of contaminated drilling waste, or produced water, to spew vertically from the wellhead. The spill was finally contained by 1 p.m. the following day. About 450 nearby residents were evacuated because of the natural gas leak.

About 111 tons of contaminated soil was trucked to Carbon Limestone Landfill for storage.

Ohio's populace is also at substantial risk because a federal Department of Energy project creating a carbon capture hub proposed for southeast Ohio relies on unproven technology that endangers the environment, human health and safety, according to FracTracker analysis.

The ODNR, which oversees the regulation of Ohio's oil and natural gas industry for the protection of the public and the environment, was emailed questions about its inspection and monitoring procedures for Ohio gas and oil accidents, but did not respond before publication.

"The sheer frequency of these gas and oil accidents is overwhelming," said Morgan. "I think what the Daily Accident Report really does is show that gas and oil industry representatives like Rob Brundrett are salespeople. These industry reps are paid a lot of money and undoubtably work with oil and gas industry front groups to craft the most compelling sales pitches money can buy, which in Ohio has included submitting alleged fraudulent, pro-fracking emails to regulators.

"Never mind that oil and gas contaminates water supplies, waterways and harms both wildlife and the health of our citizens across this nation. This is the industry that knew since the 1950s that gas and oil production would cause not just air and water pollution, but climate warming and climate change."

For information about Save Ohio Parks, the statewide, volunteer organization concerned about the harms fracking causes to our health, the environment and planet, visit https://bit.ly/3Qts26r.