After Receiving 3,400 Comments in Opposition, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Decide on Proposed Fracking Unloading Site on Ohio River
Portland, Ohio – As the comment period closes on a proposed barge dock and pipeline facility on the Ohio River to dump fracking waste from as far as Texas, Americans Against Fracking urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reject this dangerous proposal, which would threaten to contaminate the drinking water of 3 million people. Ohio attorney Terry Lodge and the Athens County Fracking Action Network earlier submitted hundreds of comments, successfully urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for an extension.
“We were just reminded about the volatility of our drinking water sources when thousands of families in Toledo could not drink the water they depend on after elevated toxin levels were discovered in Lake Erie, and a diesel fuel spill on the Ohio River raised even more concerns last week,” said Alison Auciello of Food & Water Watch in Ohio. “It’s outrageous that the Obama administration might approve a plan to allow a barge dock in the middle of the Ohio River– the unloading site for about 105 million gallons of toxic fracking waste each year. It just takes one fracking fluid spill or barge accident to potentially contaminate drinking water for millions of Ohio families. I hope the Corps and the Obama administration will stand with Ohio families over out-of-state corporate interests and keep our drinking water safe.”
If the proposal is approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard allows the barging of fracking waste on U.S. rivers, GreenHunter, a Texas-based fracking waste company, could build a barge dock on the Ohio River to unload about 105 million gallons of toxic liquid fracking waste each year. These toxic fluids would be transported from states as far away as Texas and Louisiana, held temporarily on the Ohio River and then permanently deposited in Ohio’s injection wells which already accepts almost 700 million gallons of fracking waste per year.
During the public comment period, which ended Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received 3,400 comments against the proposal.
Contact: Olamide Noah, [email protected], 310-701-8476
Americans Against Fracking is a coalition composed of more than 200 national, state and local organizations united by concerns about the health, environmental, social and economic impacts of fracking. For more information about Americans Against Fracking, visit www.AmericansAgainstFracking.org.
###