Back To The Future: Still Poisoned After All these Years
OHCRN emailed Brine Letter to Ohio Officials on November 15, 2022 concerning oil and gas brine that has been proven to contain toxic, cancer-causing, radioactive components.
These facts have been known for DECADES!
This brine has been spread on roads as a de-icer and dust suppressant for DECADES!
OHCRN, along with the undersigned organizations, demand a ban of the use of brine from oil and gas extraction operations (O&G brine) as a road deicer and dust suppressant.
Related Documents:
February 2022
Ohio House representative and Energy and Natural Resource Committee member Mary Lightbody introduces House Bill 579, the "Brine Spreading Ban" bill that would "amend sections 1509.03, 1509.22, 1509.222, 1509.223, 1509.224, 1509.33, and 1509.99 and to repeal section 1509.226 of the Revised Code to expressly prohibit the surface application of brine from oil and gas wells on roads.
Read the bill HERE.
June 21, 2021
Residents Call On State Attorney General and 9 County Prosecuting Attorneys to Launch Criminal Investigations into Radioactive Pollution of Drinking Water in Ohio
Under a 2002 law, introducing radioactive elements into Ohio drinking water is a felony offense. Companies are violating this by spreading oil and gas waste “brine” — proven by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to contain radioactive concentrations that exceed federal and state standards — in critical drinking water basins. So are state actors, residents assert.
“We have tried to bring this problem to the attention of our elected officials and have found that they are more concerned with protecting the profits of the oil/gas industry than protecting the people, the environment or the future of the state. We have been accused of breaking the law for attempting to pass laws banning this waste in our communities and now we find out that the state is breaking its own law. This needs to be exposed and dealt with.”
~ Kathie Jones from Medina County.
Demanding Accountability and Protection
Members of OHCRN demand prosecutorial action against the criminal use of brine from oil and gas extraction operations (“O&G brine”) as a road deicer and dust suppressant. O&G brine has been sprayed for years on Ohio’s roads under a patchwork of supposed legal authorities that ignore the profound radioactivity of such drilling wastes. Typically O&G brine in Ohio contains elevated levels of Radium-226, Radium-228 and Thorium-232, as well as their decay products. Radioisotopes exist in brine from both vertical as well as horizontal drilling activities and in all extraction waste fluids.
Supporting Documents and Articles
May 2021
‘This needs to be fixed’: Nuclear expert calls radioactivity levels found outside Ohio oilfield waste facility ‘excessive’
By Justin Nobel April 26, 2022
Oil and gas wastewater as road treatment: radioactive material exposure implications at the residential lot and block scale
By Daniel J Bain, Tetiana Cantlay, Brittany Garman and John F Stolz Published 18 November 2021
Call to Action: What Can You Do?
Call the Attorney General office!
Telephone: 800-282-0515 - a menu will direct you to a representative, where you will be asked your name, address, phone number
“I’m infuriated that we would put a radioactive processing plant on the banks of this beautiful river and the people who are allowing this should be prosecuted and put in jail. We have criminals running the government. Here in Cleveland to have just witnessed so much celebration over the 50 year anniversary of the Cuyahoga River burning and ‘clean up,’ only to learn that the ODNR Chief has permitted a processing facility of this radioactive brine just a few feet from the banks of the Cuyahoga River. It may not burn this time, but the dangers are even worse,” ~ Paul Sherlock, Cleveland resident and activist.
Media Coverage
