Wayne National Forest in Ohio. (photo: EcoWatch)
Feds
to Auction Off Ohio's Only National Forest to Fracking
By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
06 November 16
Following
its final Environmental Assessment and a "Finding of No Significant
Impact," the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to offer 40,000 acres of
Wayne National Forest—Ohio's only national forest—up for fracking.
The
BLM is now planning an online auction on Dec.
13 to lease the first 1,600 acres of the forest near Monroe, Noble and
Washington counties to oil and gas development. The minimum acceptable bid can
be as little as $2 per acre.
Local
environmental groups and activists have unsurprisingly spoken out against the
unconventional drilling of their state's sole national forest.
Athens
County Fracking Action Network (ACFAN) has criticized the BLM
for not considering the full extent of fracking's negative impacts in
its final Environmental Assessment posted earlier this month, including
fracking's threat to drinking water and its harm to public health and
the climate.
"[US
Forest Service decision maker and regional forester Kathleen Atkinson] clearly
has ignored the facts that the Environmental Assessment is woefully
inadequate," Athens County resident and Bern Township Trustee Roxanne
Groff told EcoWatch via email. "The Assessment does not cover cumulative
effects of fracking in the Wayne. Up-to-date research must be used to address
climate issues of fracking on public lands. This has NOT been done for the
Wayne National Forest. Research that is 11 years old is the basis for her
decision."
Rise
of Fracking Wastewater Injections in Ohio Sparks Fears of Earthquakes, Water
Contamination http://ow.ly/Zbr5v @DontFrackNY@ukycc
"To
date, over 17,000 comments have been submitted to the BLM addressing concerns
with fracking in our only National Forest and yet the sale of 1,600 acres of
mineral parcels goes forward," she continued. "Socio-economic facts
are misrepresented, violating the 1994 Executive Order 12898 regarding
Environmental Justice. The BLM ignores the minority Native American population
in the Marietta Unit and the higher than U.S. average low-income population.
This is unacceptable!"
"There
has been no adequate [National Environmental Policy Act] evaluation of fracking
the Wayne to date," Heather Cantino, ACFAN steering committee chair, said.
"The 2006 Plan, which the BLM and USFS cite as the basis for their recent
decision to go ahead with leasing, did not evaluate impacts of fracking."
"The
current BLM EA is a shoddy, inadequate document not even worthy of a high
school science report," Cantino added. "The feds apparently want to
give away our forest, climate and communities to the fracking industry and will
stop at nothing. NEPA and science don't seem to be relevant anymore to federal
actions. This is a horrifying denial of science, law, and justice."
ACFAN
has been working with the Buckeye Forest Council, Sierra Club and other
concerned groups and citizens to stop officials from opening up the Wayne
National Forest to fracking since 2011. ACFAN also noted that Wayne National
Forest is "already highly fragmented and abused, with extensive logging,
inappropriate burning, ATV trails (unlike nearby Indiana's and West Virginia's,
which prohibit them), and increasingly prevalent invasive plants."
Meanwhile,
energy industry officials have applauded the decision. Shawn Bennett, executive
vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, told The Columbus Dispatch that
the proposed leases are "a step in the right direction" and
"opens up lands that are required to be leased by several federal
statutes."
"The
project does not violate any known federal, state, local or tribal law or
requirement imposed for the protection of the environment," states the
final report signed by BLM district
manager Dean Gettinger.
As it
stands, there are now less than 30-days for opponents to file a formal protest
of the proposed lease. Nathan Johnson, an attorney for the Ohio Environmental
Council, told the Dispatch that his group will appeal the decision on the
grounds that the government has not done enough to consider environmental
concerns.
A Change.org petition backed
by more than 1,200 signatories has also been launched to protest the leasing.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment