St. C. Injection Well Public Meeting Notice
UPDATE: Virtual meeting has been cancelled due to a granting of a restraining order by Judge Vavra filed by Bob Murray. Here is the story.
Happy April! We hope you are getting out to enjoy the spring flowers and budding trees like we have been! CORR typically sends emails about the PTTG cracker plant and Appalachian Petrochemical Hub, however we are following and alerting the community to related issues in Belmont County, OH- injection wells. These waste water wells, fracking and cracker plants are all part of the Gas & Oil industry and Belmont County is ground zero for all of it.
Currently, there are 6 injection wells proposed for Belmont County: 2 in St. Clairsville (mentioned here), 2 near the Dickinson Cattle Farm in Barnesville, and 2 in Union Township - these wells are very close to the Union Local School District along Rt. 40. *If you know of anyone in these areas who might be impacted, please have them reach out to us. We should not be okay with these facilities anywhere, ESPECIALLY near schools. Click HERE to view all 6 injection well applications. Applications, however do not have all details about the process. We will be sending out further information on injection wells in the near future.
People living in Belmont County should be aware of these frack waste injection well plans and of the harms associated. We do not want these facilities in our back yards. They pollute the air, could potentially contaminate the water, have been known to induce earthquakes in regions, and threaten abandoned coal mine integrity. Many existing abandoned mines and wells may not even be identified. Not to mention the increased frack waste truck traffic. All of this impacts communities greatly. Frack waste has been known to have dangerous levels of radioactivity. See this article in the Rolling Stone about this. And click HERE to see a video from Earthworks showing air pollution from an injection well in Cambridge, OH.
ODNR Online Injection Well Public Meeting Instructions
Despite our efforts to encourage the ODNR to postpone the St. Clairsville, OH injection well public meeting until after the COVID-19 public gathering restrictions are lifted, the Division is going forward with the online format. Even the Belmont County Commissioners were not happy with this decision. It is still important to attend this meeting and ask your questions. Here are a few important things to note:
The meeting will be held TOMORROW, April 10th at 12:30pm
For instruction on how to log on, click HERE. Make sure to download the WebEX software- it will save time to download it ahead of time.
The meeting is limited to the first 200 participants so please log on at 12:15pm sharp to make sure you get a spot.
There is a call-in option- the call-in phone numbers are listed on the instructions page.
Further instructions on how to submit a question, etc. can be found at the above link.
CLICK HERE to see CORR's comments/concerns about these proposed injection wells. Feel free to draw from this document when forming your questions for the ODNR. Please also share this with people in the surrounding areas of proposed injection wells.
Again, the original comment period for this injection well saw about 700 public comments being submitted. People are not happy about this location as it is right next to multiple county buildings, the health department, 2 colleges, the county jail, a nursing care facility, the Belmont Career Center, an animal shelter, a church, residential homes, and other facilities. Injection wells accept waste water left over from the hydraulic fracking industry's operations.
Let's continue to remain vigilant about our current and future beautiful Ohio Valley. See you at the meeting.
Best,
CORR team
Reach out to us anytime.
Here are some photos of injection wells from Fractracker.org
