People from several southeastern Ohio counties gathered in Columbus earlier this month, holding signs such as “No Radioactive Waste,” to urge lawmakers to pay attention to what they see as the growing dangers of fracking for oil and natural gas, such as the transportation of wastewater, or brine.
“So, what is this oil and gas waste made of?” Roxanne Groff, a Buckeye Environmental Network board member, was asked to address the crowd on the statehouse steps via bullhorn.
“It is radioactive. And I’m not sure what else they need to know about it, other than the fact that it contains radioactivity.
Fracking brine can be saltier than seawater and contain a variety of chemicals used in the fracking process, including radium, a radioactive metal.
These activists are concerned about brine and other consequences as fracking begins under Ohio’s largest state park, Salt Fork, for the first time, thanks to a 2022 revision of an Ohio law designed to encourage oil and gas development on state-owned lands. However, this area of Ohio is no stranger to fracking.
Fracking has become a ‘daily life thing’ in Guernsey County
“That’s a brine truck right up there in front of us,” said Austin Warehime, an attorney who drove me around the curvy, hilly roads of Guernsey County, where Salt Fork State Park is located, to demonstrate how the oil and gas industry has changed this rural community, such as the increase in trucks carrying brine from fracking operations.
“It’s become a daily occurrence for people around here,” he said, noticing traffic on the road ahead. “And it appears that another brine truck is approaching us right now. So, yes, you see them quite frequently.”
I first met Warehime in the summer of 2023, at a meeting of residents and activists concerned about the state’s plans to lease public lands for fracking.
Back then, he and his wife lived in Cincinnati. They were ready to start a family and wanted to return home to Guernsey County, but it was difficult to find work. He stated that some people expected the oil and gas industry to help. It did help him.
“So I’m here. “I’m still practicing law,” Warehime said. “I’m with EQUES Law Group, and we represent landowners in oil and gas matters.”
We drove around, looking at several drilling sites where the hills had been flattened to make concrete well pads. On one road, he remembered being a child on his way to school.
“This was part of the bus route, so I saw this road every single day growing up,” he explained, pointing to a concrete well pad and pipeline. “It’s changed a lot. “That was just trees.”
Warehime’s law firm hears from people in the area who have different perspectives on the growth of the oil and gas industry. Some landowners are pleased when a landman approaches them about building a pad or a pipeline on their property:
“They feel like they hit the lottery because they’ve never had really enough money to get by even, and now all of a sudden they can go buy a new car and have reliable transportation, or they can pay for medical bills,” Warehime told the newspaper.
He also sees clients who are concerned that the environment and beauty of the area are being destroyed, but there is little they can do to prevent it.
Under Ohio’s “unitization” law, if a company can persuade 65 percent of landowners in a unit of land to lease their mineral rights, it can petition the state to compel dissenting landowners in the unit to lease.
Warehime advises unwilling landowners to reach an agreement with the energy companies, as citizens almost always lose these legal battles.
“Reasonable people look at that, and they go, ‘Well, I could either get rid of all my money by trying to fight this, or I could make a lot of money, accept it, and deal with the consequences later with some money to actually deal with those consequences,'” according to him.
A county covered with wells, with oil production as a major driver
The success of the oil and gas industry is easy to see on a well-locator map on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website. Salt Fork State Park looks like an island in a sea of hundreds of oil and gas wells covering Guernsey County.
The Energy Policy Center at Cleveland State University found nearly 300 producing oil and gas wells in Guernsey County at the end of 2023, when the report was last published.
Since then, “we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of new wells that are being drilled,” said research supervisor and report author Mark Henning.
He expects over 100 new wells in Ohio’s shale counties, including Guernsey, in the next issue, which will be published in late April.
Henning’s team is looking at possible drivers for the drilling increase, including the war in Ukraine and natural gas exports. He also points to the “oil window” in Guernsey and nearby counties. “It’s a relatively thin strip of land where there’s been more activity in the last year or so, where producers have gotten better at predicting where the oil will be,” he said.
Drilling operations have created dangers
In January, a Gulfport Energy well pad erupted less than five miles from Salt Fork State Park.
“There has been an explosion on what we presume at this time is an unoccupied well pad,” said Donald Warnock, fire chief of Antrim, an unincorporated community in Guernsey County, in a video posted to keep nearby residents informed.
“At the moment, one or two sets of tanks are on fire. “State Route 22 is closed,” he explained.
No one was injured, but activists say such incidents are not uncommon.
“We see fires, explosions, spills, and truck accidents involving brine. “And those are the reported incidents,” said Jenny Morgan of Save Ohio Parks, a group that monitors industry accidents. She cites a state data analysis that found nearly 2,000 well pad incidents in Ohio over the last eight years.
Furthermore, studies have linked living near fracking sites to health issues such as migraine headaches, difficulty breathing, poor birth outcomes, and even childhood cancers.
Morgan is concerned about hikers, boaters, and other visitors when fracking begins to access the gas beneath Salt Fork State Park. In February, her group and 29 other organizations wrote to Governor Mike DeWine, requesting a moratorium on fracking in state parks and public lands, including four wildlife areas.
“I don’t want them to frack our parks and public lands; that’s the first order of business,” Morgan stated. “It absolutely needs to not happen in these public spaces.”
Last year, the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission awarded bids for four wildlife areas and two for Infinity Natural Resources to frack beneath Salt Fork.
Save Ohio Parks and three other environmental groups recently lost an appeal in their lawsuit challenging the commission’s procedures.
Fracking Salt Fork has begun
Fracking is starting in Salt Fork.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the state does not allow well pads within state parks, so Infinity’s first well pad was built on private land about a third of a mile outside the park’s southern boundary. The company is currently drilling four wells on it.
Infinity intends to build a second well pad approximately a mile from Salt Fork’s northern boundary.
The wells on these pads will descend deep underground, then turn horizontally and run laterally for miles beneath the park. Drillers inject millions of gallons of high-pressure water mixed with sand and chemicals into the well, fracturing underground rock and releasing oil and gas.
Before drilling begins, Infinity’s lease agreements with the state require it to sample and test all water wells and sources of water within 3000 feet, including Salt Fork Lake.
In addition, the company must reduce noise and light pollution, as well as limit traffic in the park due to fracking activities.
Visiting Salt Fork
When I visited Salt Fork State Park in December, there were no visible signs of fracking. Of the few people present, two hunters stated that they were unaware of fracking but opposed anything that could harm wildlife.
Mark and Sherry Hlivko of northern Ohio were on vacation at the Salt Fork Park Lodge, where they were browsing the gift shop for silver jewelry.
“This is an amazing location. It is clean. The rooms have a cabin-like appearance, which is romantic. “Yeah, we love it,” Sherry Hlivko stated. They planned to go hiking and visit Cambridge, a nearby town.
The Hlivkos were excited at the prospect of fracking in the area. Their daughter and son-in-law previously worked in the industry in nearby Carroll County.
“They were doing great and making good money. It was amazing. Yes, we want the fracking to resume,” Sherry said.
They were unaware that the state had permitted fracking under the park and were concerned.
“As long as it doesn’t disturb the nature, the park, in any way,” Mark told me. “Yeah, and the animals can still live,” Sherry explained.
Guernsey County Commissioner Dave Wilson hasn’t noticed any issues. “So far, the fracking activity in the area surrounding the park has had no noticeable effect within the park itself,” he told me.
While Wilson has heard some complaints about the impact of industrial-sized trucks on rural roads, he believes fracking has been beneficial to the local tax base and school district.
County commissioners recently banned the use of fracking wastewater on roads, which had previously been used to suppress dust.
“We feel that nothing is perfect,” Wilson said. “But in the net, this has been a very positive thing for Guernsey County.”
As demand for energy grows and the state continues to approve drilling on public lands, it appears that the industry is here to stay.
