I guess that the state
of Ohio is having one of those “Well, duh!” moments, when the folks there
realize that expansive environmental degradation is not just the domain of
their neighbors across the river in West Virginia.
As
with my last post that ended with West Virginia Senate Majority Leader John
Unger warning that the toxic spill that deprived 300,000 residents of his state
of basic drinking water could, if ignored, serve as a harbinger to the rest of
the country. Through the lax enforcement of regulation and even the absence of
regulation other parts of the country could have poisoned water pouring out of
their taps as well.
Just
as West Virginia leads the country in mountaintop removal, Ohio leads the
country in being a dumping ground for fracking waste. Fracking requires tons
and tons of water, which becomes contaminated because of the chemicals used in
the fracking process. Because Ohio is blessed, or cursed depending on your
point of view, with unique rock layers that are ideal for disposing of fracking
waste, the Buckeye State is home to over 200 injection wells where hydraulic
fracturing waste is pumped deep underground, sometimes as deep as 5,000 feet.
With
so many West Virginians out of water for so long, a number of Ohioans are now
asking how safe is it to pump tons and tons of waste under the rocks that
provide their groundwater. A major spill in a river is a disaster, but the flow
of the water cleanses the river within weeks or months. On the other hand, once
groundwater is contaminated, it could be decades or even centuries before the
contaminants make their way from an aquifer.
Just
as it seems obvious, now, that letting a large tank filled with a toxin to sit
next to a major water source was a bad idea, you kind of wonder why weren’t
some Ohioans a little leery of letting folks pump toxic waste into the rocks
under their state in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment