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Protesting At The Ginsburg Injection Well
< < Back to protesting-ginsburg-injection-wellUPDATE 5 P.M. The battle over fracking continued Monday with a protest in Athens County.
An environmental group demonstrated at the same injection well site where a woman chained herself in June.
A group of Athens County residents says they are fed up with ongoing environmental violations at the Ginsburg Frack-Waste Injection Well.
Members of Appalachia Resist gathered at the well on Ladd Ridge Road wearing hazmat-style suits and respirators.
They're demanding the well be shut down immediately.
According to the group, residents have been calling for the well to be closed for nearly a year.
The protestors are worried about fracking waste water from other states being trucked into Ohio.
But the superintendent of the company that owns the well says his biggest problem with the protest Monday morning is that they trespassed on well property and approached unsafe areas.
“The only reason I don't want them down there is because that's a safety area down there and we require safety clothing and all things safe for that well and when they go down there they are not in the safety clothes. I mean what comes from another state out of a well goes right into the oil well. We don't take no hazardous waste. They're considering this barium rate and all this stuff hazardous but there numbers are way up there,” said Smitty Vandall, Carper Well service superintendent.
Vandall says his well is checked twice weekly by state officials and is following all regulations.
The protesters left when sheriff's deputies threatened arrest and Vandall says he won't press charges.
A group of Athens County residents are fed up with what they say are ongoing environmental violations at the Ginsburg Frack-Waste Injection Well.
Protesters gathered at the opening of the well on Ladd Ridge Road wearing hazmat style suits and respirators demanding the well be shut down immediately.
According to the group Appalachia Resist residents have been calling for the well to be shut down for nearly a year.
The group says Ohio Department of Natural Resources record's show the well has had continuous violations since the 1980's.
The release also points to findings from the United States Geological Survey earlier this fall indicating fracking waste has radioactivity levels 300 times higher than the federal legal limit.
The group says that the ODNR is continuing to ignore requests for public hearings on injection well permits, even though 100 citizen wrote letters.
The protesters held banners that read "Shut it Down, No New Permits," and "Our Safety is Not for Sale."