As a result of a vote to disallow our ordinance to appear on the November 6th ballot, Columbus Community Bill of Rights organizers have filed suit against Franklin County Board of Elections.  The lawsuit language is attached to this newsletter email.  With two recent precedent cases, Bowling Green and Youngstown, where the supreme court ordered their respective boards of elections to place their initiatives on their ballots, we expect to be on the Columbus ballot on November 6th. 

 

Please click HERE or on the map image below, to visit our online fund raiser to support this effort.

 

 

 

[Excerpts:]

'Government agencies forecast that a million more such wells will be drilled in the next 20 years in the U.S. and that as many as 50,000 wells could be drilled in northeastern B.C.

"It is getting so absurd," said Ingraffea, "that one needs a calculator with only scientific notation to run the numbers:  10 trillion gallons of water, 20 trillion pounds of sand.  Think about the carbon footprint of acquiring and transporting all that water and sand."'

 

'Meanwhile the amount of land disturbance was once limited to 1.2 hectares.  Now it ranges from 1.6 to 10 hectares with as many as 28 wells in one supersized pad.'

 

 

CLICK on the above image or HERE to read the full article.

 

 

According to Teresa Mills, of Center for Health and Environmental Justice (CHEJ), Ohio representative Holmes (D - McDonald) has proposed HB 723, which would limit the number of injection wells in each Ohio county to 23.

 

According to Ms. Mills, at 88 counties in Ohio, that would limit the number of injection wells in the state to 2,024.  We now have approximately 250 permitted Class II injection wells in the state. 

 

CLICK HERE to read the ohio.gov website page on this bill.

 

 

ETP (Energy Transfer Partners) is the same company that the Ohio EPA warned, and FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) suspended operations of, because of multiple drilling mud spills in Ohio in 2017.  One spill resulted in more than 2 million gallons suffocating a wetlands area, and tainted tap water for Canton residents after city water was diverted to prevent contaminations from improper dumping during the cleaned up process.  The EPA also found the muds contaminated with diesel fuel, highly toxic to human ingestion and the environment.  ETP previously had claimed that the bentonite muds were free from any toxic substances.

 

ETP was also the main company involved in the Dakota Access water protectors situation in S. Dakota two years ago.

 

You can read about the accident from the following URLs:

 

 

ETP are building pipelines all over the country, with lawsuits for improper seizing of private lands, and many protest actions as well.  Read the article HERE in Truthout.com.

 

 

 

[note from newsletter:]

I was never able to determine the source of ongoing funding for the fracking industry, which apparently has not made a profit since 2008.  How could a perpetually-bleeding industry continue to receive funding?  Partial answer:  OUR PENSION FUNDS, through hedge and pension funds that continue to buy high-yield/high-risk fracking ventures.

 

 

CLICK on the above image or HERE to watch this YouTube program.

 

 

 

[Excerpts:]

'Meanwhile, songbirds disappeared from the Lochend area, north of Cochrane where the Hawkwoods live, while the chemistry of local groundwater started to show changes in the amount of sodium, chloride, barium, strontium, and uranium.'

 

'After losing an unprecendented number of cattle in 2013, the Hawkwoods tested soil where the cattle had urinated and found high levels of radioactive materials.  Not even seeds would germinate in the soil.  That discovery convinced the couple to test themselves for radioactive elements and to purchase a Geiger counter.'

 

'The special test, analyzed at the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, showed that the ranchers had "high" levels of uranium and strontium above the lab's "reference range" in their urine, probably due to exposure from soil, water or air.'

 

'A study in West Virginia found that an injection well pumping salty wastewater from fracking operations into the ground had leaked and contaminated a local stream with radioactive elements and other chemicals.' [note: bold print added by newsletter editor]

 

 

CLICK on the above image or HERE to read the full article.

 

 

 

CLICK on the above image or HERE to read more.