Environmental advocates challenge Ohio's use of outdated safety standards for fracking waste disposal sites containing "heavy metals and rad
A new environmental lawsuit puts a spotlight on what critics describe as Ohio’s dangerous love affair with fracking, highlighting how the state’s permissive regulations have allowed toxic waste to be stored in injection wells without adequate safeguards for drinking water.
The Buckeye Environmental Network has filed suit against the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) over two injection wells near Marietta in the southeast part of the state where fracking waste is stored. The lawsuit says Ohio approved the wells using outdated, less stringent rules despite newer standards being in place for years.
“It’s so frightening how many of these injection wells we have in Ohio, they’re just time bombs waiting for the earth to move a little bit for this stuff to migrate,” said Chris Quinn on Today in Ohio Thursday. “I can’t believe how much we’ve ransomed the future to get some natural gas out of the ground.”
At issue are rules adopted in 2022 that require permit applicants to search within a two-mile radius for any wells or pathways that could carry toxic waste back to the surface or into water supplies. Previous standards only required checking within a half-mile radius—a dramatic difference.
Courtney Astolfi explained the significance: “Within that larger radius, there’s more than 300 oil, gas and water wells within that area. But if you just use that half mile radius that used to be in place years ago, there are fewer than 20. So, the picture changes dramatically.”
The state argues that old rules should apply because the application process began before the new standards were adopted in 2022. But environmental advocates insist that safety standards should reflect current scientific understanding, not be grandfathered in under outdated rules.
Adding to the controversy is the secrecy legislators have enshrined into the law about what’s actually in the wells.
“To this day, you cannot find out what toxic substances are in the liquid that they’re injecting into the ground in Ohio. That’s secret,” Quinn noted. “So in the future, when the stuff migrates, the people dealing with it aren’t even going to know what it is.”
The lawsuit highlights the dangerous substances potentially stored in these wells, which sit within two miles of Marietta’s drinking water system and along the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers.
“We’re talking not just fracking fluid,” Astolfi explained. “We’re not just talking waste that contains potentially heavy metals and radioactive material in some cases. We’re also talking about PFAS, those forever plastic chemicals that we know are concerning.”
The situation exemplifies Ohio’s historically permissive approach to fracking under former Governor John Kasich’s administration.
“John Kasich just welcomed this. There was no thought,” Quinn said.
For residents of Marietta and communities downstream along the Ohio River, the lawsuit represents a critical test of whether the state will prioritize long-term environmental and public health concerns over the short-term economic benefits of fracking.
