A fracker’s toxic chemicals migrated a mile away, but state regulators kept the fracking operation going: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Injection wells were allowed to operate for more than six months after a state regulator deemed them an “imminent danger” to Athens County.

On Earth Day, we’re talking about the Ohio Oil & Gas Commission appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine and the potentially toxic waste regularly pumped into our earth on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Fracking companies inject hazardous chemicals into the ground as part of their process, and some of that toxic stew was discovered more than a mile from one Ohio fracking site. Why did regulators allow the fracker to keep operating before an investigation could be completed?

Why does the federal government want to transfer Ohio National Guad members into the U.S. Space Force, and why does Gov. Mike DeWine object?

We know Maureen O’Connor as the longtime chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court before she retired. We know her as a leading force behind the anti-gerrymandering initiative we expect to see on the November ballot. Should we also know her for work in Ukraine?

How is Northeast Ohio playing a growing role in the illegal drug trade in West Virginia?

So, does an appellate court ruling mean we have a right to call city workers and drop f-bombs willy nilly if we are dissatisfied with their service?

We talked last year about Huntington Bank closing a Cleveland branch – maybe temporarily – because of crime, but the bank kept an ATM at the site operating. Is that still a neighborhood service?

A recent study discussed certain pollutants as contributing to dementia, so we wondered whether we have that problem in Northeast Ohio. What did we learn?

Cleveland provides the water we drink in much of Northeast Ohio. What is it doing about the growing problem of forever chemicals in our water?

The turnaround of Cleveland’s Hingetown neighborhood in recent years is remarkable, and it has become a center for all sorts of activity. What’s the proposal to supercharge the vibe in the neighborhood?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

chris (00:01.391)

Jake Zuckerman had another winner over the weekend, a story about a fracking nightmare and the state’s poor way of dealing with it. It’s the first story we’ll be talking about on Today in Ohio. It’s the news podcast from cleveland.com and the the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here to have a conversation with Lisa Garvin, Leila Tasi and Laura Johnston. Leila, you get the fracking story. Fracking companies inject.

hazardous chemicals into the ground as part of their process. Some of that toxic stew was discovered more than a mile from one Ohio fracking site. Why did regulators block the move to stop this from happening for months so that the whole investigation could be completed?

Leila (00:46.871)

It’s kind of a mystery why regulators didn’t put a stop to this sooner. There are 235 active class II injection wells in Ohio. The ones in question operated in Athens County by K&H Partners, house more than 30 million barrels of brine, nearly one billion gallons deep underground at high pressure. The brine is the salty potentially radioactive byproduct of oil and gas production.

Some of that brine migrated to oil and gas production wells as far as a mile away. There’s no evidence that the brine breached any groundwater aquifers, but ODNR warned that that’s a possibility and they’re in the process of bidding out groundwater testing. But this problem has been years in the making. State regulators received reports that pointed to a potential leak as far back as May of 2019. It took four years to stop it, and then in October, the commission put that order on hold

For another six months, the five commissioners didn’t offer any explanation despite OD&R’s concerns about irreparable harm to the groundwater in Athens County. Then finally on Friday, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory orator suspending operations of the three wells that were found to be leaking toxic waste into the surrounding area.

Leila (02:11.159)

They deny that their wells are leaking. They say their brine water is contained within its permitted zone, which is significantly deeper than any freshwater aquifers in the area, according to them, and incapable of impacting drinking water. The spokesperson did not, however, respond when Jake asked if they tested groundwater around the wells.

chris (02:34.159)

Well, I didn’t get to talk to Jake, so I’m curious about the timing of them approving this. Like, they’d prove it Friday because they knew this story was coming. This is inexcusable what they did. The state environmental people looked at this and said, holy moly, this is a problem. Shut it down. And then this dopey commission, which is filled with people who are in the industry, has the power to stop an order of...

Leila (02:42.679)

Mmm.

Leila (02:56.887)

Right.

chris (03:00.911)

the state administration and keep pumping this stuff in. I think it’s hilarious the company saying, oh, well, we inject it way deeper than that. It’s under intense pressure. It can go up. The story points out where it’s most likely to come up are the holes you drilled in the ground nearby. It’s again, this shows just how in the bag this entire state is for the energy industry at the expense of people. The whole idea of injecting billions of gallons of toxic.

Leila (03:09.687)

Right.

Leila (03:25.623)

Right.

chris (03:30.479)

toxic chemicals into the ground, keeping secret what is in those chemicals, because we can’t find that out because the legislature made that a secret deal, and destroying the future. Of course this stuff is going to come back. The earth shifts, and we’re seeing it. And then when it happens, we have this commission that has the power to keep it happening because they’re all in the bag of the industry.

Leila (03:55.575)

and

chris (03:55.759)

There should be like regular people on this commission, common sense people who live in the areas to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, we’re gonna keep the residents safe.

Leila (04:16.246)

Hmm.

chris (05:01.903)

Now the government is completely ransom in the future. The future generations will be dealing with this. They’ll be dealing with it in the state parks. They’ll be dealing with it in groundwater, all for the quick buck of getting this gas out of the ground. And even when the very weak safety issues come up, they still go past it. I can’t believe this company is still saying, it’s not ours. What else did the toxic stew come from if it’s not from you? It’s not naturally occurring in the soil.

It’s ridiculous. I know.

chris (05:39.695)

What is Mike DeWine doing appointing people like this to it? I also like the fact that Jake’s story pointed out that the two people who represent that area, one of them is in that industry. He wouldn’t talk to Jake, but his whole job is in that industry. Great story. Check it out. It’s on cleveland.com. Way to go, Jake. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Why does the federal government want to transfer Ohio National Guard members into the US Space Force? And Lisa, why does Governor Mike DeWine object?

chris (07:26.319)

To do what? I just don’t get it. What are they going to do? Right now, the National Guard is our disaster relief for the ones that go into cities if there’s unrest. I mean, we use them all the time to do very important things. They’re not going into space. So what is the point of this?

chris (07:46.575)

I just, I get where Mike DeWine is coming from here. He needs to have control over these guys because he’s the one that sends them in. Back when Cleveland was having the unrest after the George Floyd protest, the National Guard came in and helped the depleted Cleveland police keep order for a few weeks when we needed help getting the COVID vaccine to people. It was the National Guard that did that. They were terrific. And if you start splintering them,

We’re not going to have that ability. I’m surprised that the Biden administration isn’t buckling to this. I think Democratic and Republican governors would be up in arms. This is one of the assets they use to help people. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We know Maureen O’Connor is the longtime Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court before she retired. We know her as a leading force behind the anti-jerrymandering initiative. We expect to see on the November ballot.

Should we know her for work in Ukraine, Laura?

chris (10:18.767)

It was great to see. I didn’t realize that she had the time because she’s been so busy with the gerrymandering initiative. But this is great in helping out Ukraine. I was glad to see over the weekend that many of our House members in both parties supported the aid to Ukraine. Of course, Jim Jordan didn’t. And I was happy to see Lindsey Graham take down J.D. Vance for his myopic misunderstanding of what’s going on over there.

But to have Maureen O’Connor working in the background on something like this as part of a small group, that’s pretty cool.

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How is Northeast Ohio playing a role in the illegal drug trade in West Virginia? Hey, well, this is an odd one. Normally it’s other places that bring the drugs here.

Leila (11:04.247)

Right. US Attorney William Illenfeld in West Virginia last week announced federal drug charges against 10 Northeast Ohioans, including five each from Cleveland and Akron. And he said the northern part of his state has been getting a surge in drugs from Cleveland area residents accused of dealing cocaine and heroin. His office in recent weeks filed five separate cases that accused different groups of dealing meth, heroin, fentanyl, or cocaine in northern West Virginia. Most of the charges stem from drug deals.

from September, or I’m sorry, from February to September of 2023. So you’re right, this is unusual and upsetting to know that we are contributing to the drug crisis in other places.

chris (11:49.519)

You wonder if the people who make money dealing illegal drugs have been so cramped here that they’ve decided to branch out elsewhere where they, they have maybe lesser law enforcement. It’s not that far to go. It’s a part of the, you know, getting there, you’re going through a pretty open part of the state. Uh, just not something. I don’t think we’ve seen that before. I’ve been here a long time. I don’t remember a similar case. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Leila (11:56.983)

Hmm.

Leila (12:00.631)

Interesting.

chris (12:16.527)

I love this story Lisa. Does an appellate court ruling we have a right to call city workers and drop F bombs willy nilly if we are dissatisfied with their service?

chris (13:58.383)

Yeah, when people get bad city service, they’re allowed to vent. They spend a lot of money. Nobody should do what he did, or you should be civil and you get further with a smile. I can’t believe though, 180 day sentence. That does seem ridiculously excessive for somebody that’s calling up upset with poor service. 180 days.

chris (14:20.815)

Yeah, but OK, but but he feels he’s wrong. So if he feels he’s been wronged and he’s calling the city to scream at him, does he deserve 180 days in jail? I mean, there seems like there ought to be a middle ground here. Like if if they really did find it to be harassment. And that’s a lot of phone calls in a short period of time. You know, 180 days in jail. Think about that.

chris (14:54.415)

I don’t know, sounds like any given day in Chris Quinn’s email box. We’re listening to Today in Ohio. We talked last year about Huntington Bank closing a Cleveland branch, maybe temporarily, because of crime. But the bank kept an ATM at the site operating. Laura, is that still a neighborhood service?

chris (15:50.735)

I heard from a bunch of people over the weekend who said this is a sign of just how bad things have gotten in Cleveland. First, the bank closes because of crime in the neighborhood, and then its one remaining service gets ripped out and stolen. There are people that are looking at this as kind of the doom of the city. It is a sign of the hopelessness in certain neighborhoods, but it was a striking kind of news story. It hit a lot of people that way.

chris (16:32.751)

All right, Laura, keep your mic unmuted. A recent study discussed certain pollutants is contributing to dementia. So we wondered whether we have that problem in Northeast Ohio. We know we have dementia, but is the pollutants that cause it? What did we learn?

chris (18:08.591)

Yeah, the alarming parts of this, that the alcohol use was clearly connected to it, the over consumption of sugar clearly connected to it, but the air pollution was the one that raised the question, how serious is that here? We have other air pollution problems in Cleveland with ozone, but it’s not this, which was kind of good news in the end.

chris (19:10.831)

And the story pointed out, that’s why it’s so critical to get the lead out of Cleveland houses because the lead does to kids’ brains exactly what all these other factors are doing to the rest of our brains, depriving them of the brain cells they need for later in life. It’s a good story. You should check it out. It’s on cleveland.com. Gretchen did a nice job. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cleveland provides the water we drink and much of North-East.

Northeast Ohio, what is it doing about the growing problem of forever chemicals in the water? Man, we’ve talked about poison and the fracking, we’ve talked about poison in the air. Now let’s talk about our drinking water.

chris (21:23.343)

But they’re not finding it yet. That’s really interesting. Yeah. Yeah, because the word had always been, it’s too late, they’re everywhere, and now we have to start getting them out. But they’re not, and did you say they’re not finding it when they take it from the lake and after they treat it? Or...

chris (21:48.687)

Wow, that’s a great thing. If you’ve never taken a tour of the water plant, especially the Baldwin one, it’s a cool place to walk through. It’s built back in the very cool days of architecture and it’s a massive structure. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The turnaround of Cleveland’s Hingetown neighborhood in recent years is remarkable and it has become a center for all sorts of activity. Lela, what’s the proposal to supercharge the vibe in that community?

Leila (22:14.743)

Steve Litt tells us that West 29th Street at Church Avenue in the Hingetown neighborhood has become such a popular location for concerts, flea markets, dog walkers, and families with young kids that the city of Cleveland is exploring whether it makes sense to turn it into what’s known as an open street. That means that they would close it to vehicles part of the time or all of the time and install amenities like street furniture.

This past Saturday, city planners and consultants held a public meeting at a deli and bakery on West 29th Street to gather some public feedback on that concept. And the city has received $100,000 grant from the project for public spaces to come up with a design, to test and evaluate various kinds of street furniture and organize events on the street for a year with installation and programs starting in the late summer, early fall. There’s no design yet. The project will

concentrate primarily on the block between Church and Clinton Avenues, but the city could also consider including the busy block to the north between Church and Detroit Avenues. So it was pretty exciting. I wonder what kind of feedback they got from the public.

chris (23:24.687)

What I liked about this story is Steve kind of took us through the history of this movement, that it became big years ago because of, in Europe it’s everywhere and it’s wonderful, but then it kind of petered out and fewer communities were doing it, and it’s suddenly being discussed anew. I wonder why it didn’t take the last time.

Leila (23:29.143)

Yeah.

Leila (23:37.111)

Right.

Leila (23:45.239)

Yeah, I wonder too. Yeah, he said that after some plate locations installed these kinds of concepts, they started to tear them out again. And Cleveland has been a little slower to grab onto this trend, but Mayor Justin Bibb has brought it to the fore. Steve also pointed to the Van Aken district in Shaker Heights as a potential model for what this could look like. Every summer, Shaker has closed a portion of Tuttle Road near the retail and restaurants there to create.

an outdoor living room with picnic tables and AstroTurf. It’s very temporary looking, according to the photo that he included. I think this will have a much more permanent feel if they do decide to go forward with this.

chris (24:28.783)

I live near Lee Road in Cleveland Heights and I’ve wished they would do that there for years. Everybody says, oh, it would block traffic, it would block traffic. We have so many east-west kind of north-south arteries that could take up the slack. I just think it would make for a wonderful kind of district. And I’m sure if you talked about it, you could come up with other areas where you’d love to see this. Traffic-free, roomy.

Kind of an enjoyable place. I hope they get it done in Hingetown. It’s amazing how much that neighborhood has changed in the last 20 years

chris (25:19.279)

I just, when you go to Europe and you’re in districts that have this, they’re wonderful and people seem to thrive in them. We’re such a car-based culture though that I think must be harder to pull off. Because if you want to go there, of course, like you said, you see you got to get there, you got to find a place to park and that can be very challenging.

chris (26:10.447)

Right. When you sit outside in any of the shops on Lee Road and Cleveland Heights, you know, buses are going by. You’re never that far from the vehicular traffic and it doesn’t have that peaceful feeling you get in a true district like this. It’d be a good experiment. As usual, Steve does a very thorough job in laying out how it worked, what it would mean and the whole history. Our readers love Steve Litt and there’s a reason for that.

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for Monday. Thanks Lisa. Thanks Laila. Thanks Lara. Thanks to everybody who listens. Come on back Tuesday for another discussion of the news.