Mary Annette Pember
ICT

Former President Donald Trump’s decision to tap U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate drew immediate concerns from Indigenous leaders over his views toward Indian Country.

Vance called Indigenous Peoples’ Day a “fake holiday” and praised Columbus just a few weeks after questioning the term “two-spirit” in separate postings in 2021 on social media. He also has fought name-changes requested by tribal leaders for historical sites.

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The social media comments were made before Vance, a native of Middletown, Ohio, was sworn in as one of Ohio’s U.S. senators in 2023.

“‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day” is a fake holiday created to sow division,” Vance wrote on Oct. 11, 2021, on the social media site now known as X. “Of course, Joe Biden is the first president to pay it any attention.”

In a subsequent posting on Oct. 11, Vance wrote, “A half a millennium ago Columbus used technology developed in Europe to sail across a giant ocean and discover a new continent. Today we celebrate that daring and ingenuity. Happy Columbus Day!”

A month earlier, he commented on a Sept. 8, 2021, post from Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York that makes references to “trans, two-spirit and non-binary people.”

“I’m sorry but what the hell is two-spirit?” Vance asked on the site known then as Twitter. “Would love if progressives would just stop inventing words.”

This week, after the announcement that Vance would be Trump’s vice presidential nominee, leaders at the Urban Native Collective issued a statement expressing concern over his remarks.

“These remarks undermine the inherent rights and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and perpetuate historical inaccuracies,” according to the statement issued on Wednesday, July 17, by the collective, a nonprofit based in Cincinnati that advocates for Indigenous peoples.

‘Resilience and strength’

President Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2021, lending the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Native peoples.

The day is observed each year on Oct.11, along with Columbus Day, which is established by Congress.

“For generations, federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures,” Biden wrote in the Indigenous Peoples’ Day proclamation. “Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.”

In a separate proclamation on Columbus Day, Biden praised the role of Italian-Americans in U.S. society, but also referenced the violence and harm Columbus and other explorers of the age brought with them.

Making landfall in what is now the Bahamas on Oct. 12, 1492, Columbus, an Italian explorer, was the first in a wave of European explorers who decimated Native populations in the Americas in quests for gold and other wealth, including people to enslave.

Vance has said little during his political tenure regarding Native Americans or Indian policy, as reported by Indianz.com.

Opposing tribal requests

Vance has opposed the renaming of several sites requested by tribal leaders, however.

In August 2023, as a U.S. Senator, Vance issued a public letter asking the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture to oppose changing Ohio’s Wayne National Forest to the Buckeye National Forest.

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The agriculture department had proposed changing the name in response to requests from tribes and local community members, according to a press release issued by the agency. The changes is still under discussion.

“The forest is currently named after General Anthony Wayne, whose complicated legacy includes leading a violent campaign against the Indigenous peoples of Ohio that resulted in their removal from their homelands,” according to the statement.

In his letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, Vance wrote, “The federal effort denigrates Ohio history and represents a lack of fidelity to our nation’s founding generation.”

He went on to write, “I take exception to the U.S.D.A.’s designation of Wayne’s legacy as ‘complicated.” Labeling the life and times of Wayne in such a way is an all-too-common dismissive, academic handwave that is beneath the dignity of the U.S. government.”

In 2023, Sabrina Eaton of Cleveland.com described Wayne as a general in the Revolutionary War, nicknamed Mad Anthony Wayne either because of his bold military tactics or his hot temper.

In 2019, ICT quoted George Ironstrack, assistant director of education for the Myaammia Center at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, about Wayne’s history with Native peoples in Ohio. The center is an initiative led by the Miami Nation of Oklahoma, whose homelands include lands in and around the Ohio river valley. They were removed from the state in 1840.

“As part of his campaign, Wayne’s forces systematically burned Miami villages, food stores and crops,” Ironstrack told ICT.

According to Ironstrack, Wayne’s strategy of starvation culminated by the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, which forced the Miami tribe to the negotiating table and resulted in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville in which the Miami and other tribes ceded most of their lands in Ohio.

Vance, who is the author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” frequently touts his hardscrabble upbringing and aversion to elitism in politics as bridges to the populist wing of the Republican Party. He also opposed Trump sharply before shifting his rhetoric to support the former president.

A story published Thursday, July 18, by the news site Wired, however, details the senator’s contacts with the elite, conservative heavyweights, wealthy financiers and others that he previously had denounced.

The contacts came from a Wired analysis of Vance’s public Venmo account network. Venmo is a digital payment application that frequently makes users’ phone contacts and friends’ lists public.

Among those listed as Vance contacts is Amalia Halikias of the controversial Project 2025. Created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, Project 2025 sets forth a political plan that calls for dismissal of thousands of public servants, expanded power of the president, dismantling of the Department of Education, halting sales of the abortion pill and many other actions that appeal to the far right. Trump has claimed ignorance of Project 2025 but Vance has stated in previous interviews that the document has “some good ideas.”

‘We demand respect’

Vance’s nomination as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate came during the Republican National Convention, which ran July 15-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Indianz.com noted a lack of Native events during the convention in a state that is home to 11 federally recognized tribes, but ICT reported the scheduling of a federal Indian policy roundtable organized by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who is Cherokee.

A couple of Native delegates from Oklahoma were also voting at the convention, which included appearances from some tribal leaders from Wisconsin, including Forest County Potawatomi Chairman James Crawford. Former Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer, who made a statement during the 2020 convention, had been expected to attend the roundtable discussion.

The announcement of Vance as the vice presidential candidate, however, came at the last minute as the convention was set to begin.

“Our rights and history as Indigenous peoples are not up for debate; we demand respect from someone in such a potentially powerful position like the vice president,” Briana Mazzolini-Blanchard, executive director of the Urban Native Collective, told ICT. Massolini-Blanchard is a citizen of the CHamoru Nation of the island of Guam.

“It’s saddening that political leaders continue to stand by these colonized names that hold such deep pain for Indigenous peoples.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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ATHENS, Ohio – During a special session held during its committees meeting Monday, Athens City Council heard second reading of an ordinance that would use a different source for half of the salaries for two municipal court employees.

Currently, the two employees’ pay comes from the city’s General Fund. By reducing the General Fund’s share of the wages to 50%, the proposed ordinance would bring the General Fund balance closer to its statutory minimum threshold of 7.5% of annual expenditures. The fund balance was at 6% in late May, Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht said at a previous council meeting. The goal is to reach 9%.

Council heard first reading of the ordinance, which would amend the 2024 appropriation ordinance, at its June 10 meeting. The ordinance, as drafted by the municipal court, amends the 2024 appropriation ordinance so that half of the employees’ wages come from the General Fund and half from grants to be obtained by the court.  

At Monday night’s meeting, however, council discussed moving $55,000 in salary expenses to come municipal court’s DUI Court Fund instead of the General Fund. While that approach would help the General Fund balance, paying court employees with DUI funds could create a problem, said council member Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward. 

“Requiring the court to pay for employees with DUI funds turns that into an incentive to find people with DUI charges to maintain their employees,” Spjeldnes said.

Speldnes added that while she “loves” the idea of relieving financial stress from the General Fund, courts should not be self-funded and should be sustained by the General Fund and grants. So, she is unsure if she will vote to pass the ordinance on third reading.

“I don’t really like the idea of setting a precedent of having fines and fees be what sustains our courts,” said Spjeldnes. “I don’t think that’s philosophically a good idea.”

Monday’s meeting was a regularly scheduled committee meeting; committee meetings are intended for general discussion rather than official action. Although the special session appeared on the meeting agenda, no public notice of the change appears to have been made. Ohio law requires public bodies to provide at least 24 hours’ public notice of special meetings.

City Law Director Lisa Eliason told the Independent that council agreed to add the special session to the June 24 meeting at its June 17 meeting. In an email, Council Clerk Debbie Walker said the special session agenda was published on June 21. The Independent is investigating the matter.

Athens City Council’s next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5, in Athens City Hall, Council Chambers, third floor, 8 E. Washington St. Meetings are also available online. Regular sessions are on the first and third Mondays of the month; committee meetings are on the second and fourth Mondays. Regular meetings are not held in July unless otherwise ordered by the council.

This story was updated at 3:15 p.m. June 27 to include information from Debbie Walker.

The post Athens council considers using DUI Court Fund to pay workers appeared first on Athens County Independent.

Micki Olson, University at Albany, State University of New York

You’ve probably heard people say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” There’s a lot of truth to that phrase, and it’s important to understand it as summer temperatures rise.

Humidity doesn’t just make you feel sticky and uncomfortable – it also creates extra dangerous conditions on hot days. Together, too much heat and humidity can make you sick. And in severe cases, it can cause your body to shut down.

Meteorologists talk about the risk of heat and humidity using the heat index, but it can be confusing.

I’m a risk communication researcher. Here’s what you need to know about the heat index and some better ways meteorologists can talk about the risks of extreme heat.

What is the heat index, and how is it measured?

Heat index is the combination of the actual air temperature and relative humidity:

• Air temperature is how hot or cold the air is, which depends on factors such as the time of day, season of the year and local weather conditions. It is what your thermometer reads in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.

• Relative humidity compares how much water vapor is in the air with how much water vapor the air could hold at that temperature. It’s expressed as a percentage.

The heat index tells you what it “feels like” outside when you factor in the humidity. For example, if it’s 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius) with 55% relative humidity, it might feel more like a scorching 117 F (47.2 C).

But there’s a catch: Heat index is measured in shady conditions to prevent the sun’s angle from affecting its calculation. This means if you’re in direct sunlight, it will feel even hotter.

Apparent temperature, alerts and wet bulb

“Apparent temperature” is another term you might hear this summer.

Apparent temperature is the “feels like” temperature. It considers not only temperature and humidity but also wind speed. This means it can tell us both the heat index and wind chill – or the combination of the temperature and wind speed. When conditions are humid, it feels hotter, and when it’s windy, it feels colder.

We found that apparent temperature is even less well understood than the heat index, possibly due to the word apparent having various interpretations.

There are a few other ways you may hear meteorologists talk about heat.

Wet bulb globe temperature considers temperature, humidity, wind and sunlight. It’s especially useful for those who spend time outdoors, such as workers and athletes, because it reflects conditions in direct sunlight.

HeatRisk is a new tool developed by the National Weather Service that uses colors and numbers to indicate heat risks for various groups. More research is needed, however, to know whether this type of information helps people make decisions.

In many places, the National Weather Service also issues alerts such as excessive heat watches, warnings and advisories.

The risk is getting lost in translation

Knowing about heat and humidity is important, but my colleagues and I have found that the term heat index is not well understood.

We recently conducted 16 focus groups across the United States, including areas with dry heat, like Phoenix, and more humid areas, like Houston. Many of the people involved didn’t know what the heat index was. Some confused it with the actual air temperature. Most also didn’t understand what the alerts meant, how serious they were or when they should protect themselves.

In our discussions with these groups, we found that meteorologists could get across the risk more clearly if, instead of using terms like heat index, they focus on explaining what it feels like outside and why those conditions are dangerous.

Watches, warnings and advisories could be improved by telling people what temperatures to expect, when and steps they can take to stay safe.

Climate change is exacerbating heat risks by making extreme heat more common, intense and long-lasting. This means clear communication is necessary to help people understand their risk and how they can protect themselves.

What you can do to protect yourself

With both hot and humid conditions, extra precautions are necessary to protect your health. When you get hot, you sweat. When sweat evaporates, this helps the body cool down. But humidity prevents the sweat from evaporating. If sweat cannot evaporate, the body has trouble lowering or regulating its temperature.

Although everyone is at risk of health issues in high heat, people over 65, pregnant women, infants and young children can have trouble cooling their bodies down or may run a higher risk of becoming dehydrated. Certain health conditions or medications can also increase a person’s risk of heat-related illness, so it’s important to talk to your doctor about your risk.

Heat illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, are preventable if you take the right steps. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focuses on staying cool, hydrated and informed.

• Stay cool: Use air conditioning in your home, or spend time in air-conditioned spaces, such as a shopping mall or public library. Limit or reschedule your exercise and other outdoor plans that occur in the middle of the day when it is hottest.

• Stay hydrated: Drink more water than you might otherwise, even if you don’t feel thirsty, so your body can regulate its temperature by sweating. But avoid sugary drinks, caffeine or drinks with alcohol, because these can cause you to become dehydrated.

• Stay informed: Know the signs of heat illness and symptoms that can occur, such as dizziness, weakness, thirst, heavy sweating and nausea. Know what to do and when to get help, because heat illnesses can be deadly.

Micki Olson, Senior Researcher in Emergency and Risk Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Heat index warnings can save lives on dangerously hot days − if people understand what they mean appeared first on Athens County Independent.

Ohio has seen a big jump in the number of agency orders forcing property owners to allow oil and gas development on their land, whether they want it or not. 

The number of so-called “unitization” orders issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has surged in recent years, peaking at 112 in 2022 and continuing at nearly 100 last year, according to data obtained from the agency by the Energy News Network. 

The practice is common, with rules varying by state. In Ohio, lawmakers began working to streamline the process for oil and gas companies in 2019, coinciding with a decline in the state’s gas production after a seven-year fracking boom.

Those changes run contrary to other efforts in Ohio to restrict energy development in the name of neighbors’ private property rights, including strict wind farm setbacks passed in 2014 and a 2021 law allowing counties to block new wind and solar projects.

Under Ohio law, companies must meet several conditions before initiating unitization, including a showing that at least 65% of property owners in a project area consent to drilling. 

Critics say the process was already tilted in the companies’ favor, and that the recent changes will make it even harder to block drilling or negotiate concessions.

“All the cards are stacked against us,” said Patrick Hunkler. In 2018, ODNR issued an unitization order for property he and his wife, Jean Backs, own in Belmont County, which is one of the state’s top-producing counties for oil and gas. The developer later canceled the project, so the order was revoked. More recently, Ascent Resources had tried to lease their land before backing out.  

The legal process known as unitization has been available to Ohio oil and gas companies since 1965 but was rarely used until about a decade ago, after advances in drilling technology made it profitable to tap into harder-to-develop pockets of petroleum.

“The unitization process exists to protect the rights of those … who want to lease their minerals for development,” said Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, “so that a small minority of owners … cannot stop everyone else from realizing the full potential of their property and minerals.”

For petroleum companies, the process has also promoted efficient oil and gas extraction. Otherwise, reduced pressure from too many wells could reduce the total recovery from an area.

Companies must show they have consent from owners of 65% of the area above a common oil and gas deposit before they can seek a unitization order. Companies also must show they tried to reach an agreement with holdouts, and that drilling under those properties is necessary to substantially increase the amount of oil and gas recovered. Any added value must also exceed the related costs.

“Our experience at the unitization hearing was that oil and gas runs the show,” Backs said.

Hearings don’t consider environmental impacts or other reasons landowners might not want drilling and fracking. “It’s just not part of the evaluation,” said Heidi Robertson, a Cleveland State University law professor who has written about unitization. Rather, she said, the basic question is: “Will adding this land to the unit make it easier for the developer to more efficiently and more profitably get the oil and gas out of the ground?”

The answer is almost always yes. 

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has denied only one unitization application since 2012, according to spokesperson Andy Chow. Meanwhile, it has approved more than 500 applications, with more than half the orders issued after 2020. The agency hired an additional employee in 2021 to deal with an increase in applications, Chow said.

Owners whose property is unitized won’t have pads or roads on their property, but they still get royalties and other payments. Ohio law requires “just and reasonable” compensation for landowners.

In most cases that compensation starts with a 12.5% royalty. Additional payments are adjusted for the developer’s expenses and other factors and the compensation is often smaller than that for voluntary participants. Orders typically have let companies recoup twice those amounts before unitized landowners can get payouts beyond royalties, said attorney Matthew Onest, whose firm has represented multiple landowners in oil and gas matters. 

In some cases, property owners must wait even longer. At a March 27 hearing, for example, drilling company EAP Ohio asked for a “500% penalty” for owners who did not agree to a lease. Anna Biblowitz, a negotiator for Encino Energy, claimed the higher penalty was justified by the developer’s risk and “as a motivator for other working interest owners to participate.” A ruling in the case is due this month.

Why are there more orders?

Some property owners, including Backs and Hunkler, worry about climate change and other environmental impacts. They said companies wouldn’t agree to requested lease terms for no flaring, methane monitoring and monitoring of the spring on their property.

“These oil and gas companies aren’t addressing the important issues of our environment,” Hunkler said.

Other landowners may hold out because they want more money, said Onest. “They kind of dig their heels in,” he said.

Industry experts said market forces could partially explain the rise in unitization cases. Property owners could hold out more often because they want higher payments like others got early on in the state’s fracking boom. Or, higher oil prices might be motivating companies to pursue projects that once seemed too complicated to be worthwhile. 

State officials have made the process easier, too. In 2019, lawmakers added language about how to calculate the 65% threshold, tucking the terms into a 2,600-page state budget law. Matt Hammond, who was then president of the Ohio Oil & Gas Association, told lawmakers the added language was meant to “clarify” the law. 

In practice, the change likely lowered a barrier for companies to use the tool, according to Clif Little, an Ohio State University Extension educator in Old Washington, Ohio. “If you’re seeing actually more [cases] for forced unitization, that would be a significant player in that,” Little said.

Another law passed in 2022 requires the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to hold hearings on unitization applications within 60 days. The agency must rule within 60 days of the hearing, and also let companies know in advance if an application is incomplete.

For industry, the primary benefit from the 2022 law change was to get certainty about timing. “This impacted how a producer was able to plan their drilling schedules,” said Mike Chadsey, director of external affairs for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources also changed its guidelines last year to standardize unitization applications. The agency’s website said the changes were “aimed at streamlining the review process” and that applications would include fewer documents.

Among other things, companies don’t need to file testimony from engineers, geologists and landmen in advance of hearings — something they had generally done in the past, said Robertson at Cleveland State. In her view, that further limits any dissenting landowners’ ability to prepare challenges to such testimony when the hearing does take place.

The Covid-19 pandemic also affected unitization hearings, which are now generally held via Zoom. “Allowing these meetings to be held via Zoom is a benefit to all parties involved,” Chadsey said, adding that it’s more convenient for landowners.

Folks in “suits and ties” had to come from out of state when ODNR held the unitization hearing for Hunkler and Backs’ property back in 2017. With a remote format, though, the hearing panel and company personnel “don’t have to look at you in person,” Hunkler said.

Oil and gas companies said they take every step to avoid forced leases, but that unitization is an important tool when that is not possible.

“When those means are exhausted, which often includes situations of poor record-keeping or the inability to locate an owner, unitization can be a tool to ensure property and mineral rights are realized by all stakeholders,” said Zack Arnold, president and CEO of Infinity Natural Resources.

Jackie Stewart, vice president of external affairs for Encino Energy voiced a similar position. “Encino makes every attempt to lease all landowners in each unit and only utilized unitization after all leasing efforts are exhausted, so the property rights of Ohio’s landowners can be realized,” she said.

“This isn’t something any lawyer can handle. You have to be an expert in this stuff,” Robertson said. “And all the experts are on the other side, because that’s where the money is.”

Robertson is unaware of any legislation to make matters fairer for landowners who don’t want to lease their land. And gerrymandering makes it unlikely such bills will be passed anytime soon. As she sees it, the process is “stacked against the dissenting landowner.”

As Ohio clamps down on clean energy, recent changes make it easier to force landowners to allow oil and gas drilling is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

ATHENS, Ohio — A student-organized protest for Gaza on the Ohio University campus last week drew at least 200 participants, who briefly occupied a university building before marching to the College Green.

The protest, organized by the Ohio University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (aka Bobcats for Palestine), was one of dozens of college campus demonstrations occurring across the country. The protest began shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday evening at Bicentennial Park by Walter Hall, and concluded around 6:15 p.m. at Cutler Hall. 

The group is only around three months old, said Deika Ahmed, an OU senior studying marketing who serves as OUSJP’s media contact. 

Demonstrators at last week’s protest called for a ceasefire in the War on Gaza, an end to Palestinian genocide and for Ohio University to disclose and divest its investments in Israel. That would require state lawmakers to repeal Ohio Revised Code 9.76, which prohibits universities from divesting any portions of their investment portfolios in Israel. 

“We think [ORC 9.76] goes against our First Amendment rights,” OUSJP member Sophie Grubbs said in an email. “At this time, we do not have any more information about OU’s investments. We are going to research this during the summer!” 

Ahmed said the university’s contract with Coca-Cola is one example of its investment in Israel. The company has become a target of a pro-Palestinian boycotting because it operates a facility in Israel. 

Unlike many campus demonstrations elsewhere this spring, OU’s protest had no major or overt police presence, allowing the marchers to disperse peacefully. 

The university “connected in advance with its organizers to help ensure everyone involved could safely exercise their right to express their views while remaining aware that such activities should neither infringe on the rights of others nor disrupt University activities and operations,” OU spokesperson Daniel Pittman said in an email.

The protest culminated in a revolving occupation of Baker University Center. For several minutes demonstrators chanted, held signs and played instruments as they rode up all four floors of escalators, rode back down, exited the building and circled back around. 

Eventually, the demonstrators headed north on Court Street, entered through the Alumni Gateway on College Green and wrapped up outside of Cutler Hall. 

Although OUSJP organized the protest, community members of all ages participated in the demonstration. Organizers said that present were two medics and “security personnel,” who helped demonstrators cross streets safely and watch the demonstration’s perimeters.

Demonstrators held signs, wore keffiyehs, beat drums, and passed out water and snacks. Chants included “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” “Free, free Palestine,” and “OU, Divest.”

The protest also featured speakers both before and after the walk. At least two speakers were Jewish and spoke about their support for Palestine and personal relationships with Zionism. 

One speaker was Davey McNelly, who spoke before the walk through Baker. McNelly co-founded Athens’ Jewish Voices for Peace 5 years ago.

“As a Jewish person who grew up in southeastern Ohio, it’s sometimes rough – you can feel like you’re on your own here – but I do want to say, it’s definitely not anti-Semitic to call out Israel, to call out an apartheid state,” McNelly said. “These are our Jewish beliefs – that you stand up for what’s right.” 

Two counterprotesters drove past demonstrators while waving an Israeli flag from their vehicle. The duo later stood on the fourth floor of Baker and stood silently as protestors left the building to walk up Court Street.  

Athens City Council passes ceasefire resolution for Israel’s war on Gaza

Local activists have held several antiwar protests since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in Israel, which launched a counteroffensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians — most of them women and children. 

They also have taken their cause to local governments: In February, against the advice of its law director, Athens City Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict. The village of Chauncey will decide this week whether to pass its own ceasefire resolution.

The post Hundreds demand university ‘disclose, divest’ investments in Israel appeared first on Athens County Independent.

ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources will test well water for possible contamination after determining toxic waste from four fracking waste injection wells in eastern Athens County spread underground.

On March 27, about 50 people heard updates on the ODNR’s water testing plan and related issues at a town hall in Coolville organized by community members. The discussion at the town hall was lively, with community members frequently raising hands to ask questions and voice concerns.

“It makes me want to cry,” said Coolville resident Dawn Harman, who learned about possible contamination at the town hall. Harman told the Independent she moved to the area “to not have all that pollution and live in my 40 acres of woods.”

The ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management found last year that toxic fracking waste from four injection wells poses an “imminent danger” to health and the environment.

“While the division has received no reports of adverse effects to human health or safety associated with the implicated injection wells,” the division will hire a consultant to “conduct a groundwater study to ensure no evidence of adverse impacts to ground water can be found,” according to the division’s request for proposals.

“It’s not a good place to be … but it’s a better place to be than not having the investment in testing,” said Ohio University professor and groundwater expert Natalie Kruse Daniels at the Coolville town hall.

The division is evaluating bids from two consultants and “hopes to award a contract in the near future,” according to a March 26 statement Division Chief Eric Vendel shared with town hall organizer Roxanne Groff. 

One of the four injection wells at issue is a Rome Township well operated by Reliable Enterprises that the division suspended in May 2023. The next month, the division suspended the other three injection wells, operated by K&H Partners in nearby Torch.

While the Rome Township well permanently ceased operation after the ODNR’s suspension order, K&H fought its suspension vigorously. K&H appealed the division’s order both to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and the quasi-judicial Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, which specifically hears these types of cases.

The Franklin County case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, while the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission heard arguments in the case in December 2023. Four months later, the commission has yet to issue a final decision.

The K&H wells have operated continuously without modification since October, when the commission allowed the company to continue operations throughout the appeal process.

Related reading from the Athens County Independent:

Local injection wells suspended over ‘imminent danger’ to drinking water

ODNR warns of ‘calamity’ as Torch injection wells resume operation pending appeal

Arguments heard in injection well suspension case

In a January post-hearing brief the division warned, “If K&H is allowed to continue operating the K&H Wells without modifications, critical freshwater in … Athens County could be irreparably destroyed.”

According to its water sample analysis plan, the division will test water from wells within a half mile of the four implicated injection wells and seven oil and gas production wells. 

The division previously concluded the seven production wells were impacted by underground migration of toxic fracking waste, known as brine. 

Data released by the Pennsylvania-based watchdog group FracTracker shows that at least two of the three K&H wells in question have been injected with waste containing polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAs are linked to birth defects and increased risk of cancer.

Related reading from the Athens County Independent:

Torch fracking injection wells received waste containing ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS: data

ODNR data published by FracTracker shows fracking waste in Ohio contains radioactive waste as well. The radioactive compounds that ODNR found in fracking waste can remain in the environment for thousands of years and cause bone, liver and breast cancer.

The division’s consultant will test water from 33 water wells in Athens and Washington counties.

Kruse Daniels presented on the division’s water sample analysis plan at the Coolville town hall and said the database the division used to identify water wells “is a little hit or miss, but it’s a good starting point.”

Meanwhile, Groff, an environmental activist and former Athens County commissioner who presented at the townhall, said the division’s proposed area of review “doesn’t go far enough.” That’s because the division has found that brine spread further than a half mile from injection wells, she said.

The division found that brine from the Reliable Enterprises well impacted oil and gas production wells as far as 2 miles away, while brine from the K&H wells impacted production wells as far as 1.5 miles away. In a separate instance of brine migration in Washington County, the division found that brine spread even farther.

The division will primarily evaluate impacts to water supplies by testing for chloride concentrations and measurable bromide. If chloride concentrations and the ratio of chloride and bromide in the water surpass given thresholds, the division will recommend additional testing.

Groff told the Independent she doesn’t think the division’s proposed set of parameters for water sampling are sufficient.

Kruse Daniels, however, said at the town hall, “I can always say ‘sample for more’ — but I think actually what they laid out does make pretty good sense.”

ODNR media representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Kruse Daniels said “the proof will be in the pudding in a lot of ways,” regarding the sufficiency of the division’s water testing.

“This is a single sample at a single time point, but what we understand is that how contaminants move in the environment is very time-based,” Kruse Daniels said. “When we look at how these things could move, we’re talking about — is it thousands of years, is it hundreds of years, is it tens of years? And a lot of those things we don’t know.”

Kruse Daniels said it will be important for the division to compare water parameters in the area over time.

The Division’s bidding process closed on March 15.

Once the division awards a contract, the consultant will have 90 days to conduct water testing and an additional 30 days to issue a final report, per the RFP.

In addition to discussing the division’s water testing plan, speakers at the town hall also discussed a petition to revoke Ohio’s regulatory authority over its underground injection program and Ohio’s history of underground injection well incidents.

Groff encouraged community members to contact their elected representatives in the Ohio Statehouse to share disapproval with Ohio’s current rules regulating injection wells.

“We have voices; we need to use them,” Groff said.

Elevating the voices of the people was part of why Groff and other activists organized the town hall, she said. 

“They don’t offer themselves to people,” Groff said, referring to the ODNR. “So the people have to organize themselves to have these meetings.”

The town hall was hosted by Torch Can Do, the Buckeye Environmental Network, the Ohio Brine Task Force and Athens County Future Action Network.

The post ODNR to test local drinking water for fracking waste contamination appeared first on Athens County Independent.

ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources investigated at least 26 oil and gas incidents in Athens County over the past five years, according to ODNR data analyzed and published by the environmental nonprofit FracTracker Alliance.

Across the state, ODNR investigated more than 1,500 incidents over the same period, from 2018 through early September 2023.

That’s a stark contrast with the claims of some industry leaders: FracTracker’s investigation began after Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, told WOSU that Ohio rarely has issues with oil and gas incidents.

Brundrett’s statement prompted environmental activist Jenny Morgan with Save Ohio Parks to submit a public records request for the data. Morgan then shared the data with FracTracker for analysis.

“Data show the total number of oil and gas incidents in the state, and their level of severity, has been grossly misrepresented,” FracTracker’s Midwest program coordinator Gwen Klenke said in a press release.

Most of Ohio’s incidents were in the eastern part of the state, and the three most affected counties were Washington, Muskingum and Noble counties, with over 70 incidents each. Athens County didn’t rise to the top in the data, but still saw more incidents than 75% of counties.

FracTracker removed about 100 incidents from its analysis of the ODNR dataset due to incomplete information, including locational data.

Most Athens County incidents involved a release or discharge of crude oil or gas, according to the Independent’s review of the raw ODNR data shared by FracTracker.

Three incidents involved what the ODNR described as a minor contamination of waterways, and about half involved contamination of soils. Four incidents — including two from 2019 — haven’t been resolved, requiring ongoing remediation work. 

Though most incidents were associated with operational oil and gas production wells, several oil and gas leaks in Athens County were associated with orphaned wells — abandoned wells that often pose environmental hazards.

Two incidents included in the ODNR data involved a release of brine, a toxic waste product from fracking. Brine may contain radioactive materials and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are linked to birth defects and increased risk of cancer, among other health issues.

Related coverage from the Athens County Independent:

Torch fracking injection wells received waste containing ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS: data

One incident in 2018 involved an estimated “30’ by 300’ release of brine” from an apparently slowly leaking tank battery in Stewart. The release resulted in “several dead trees and brush as well as a large grass kill area” but no injuries, and no harm to water or wildlife, according to the ODNR data.

Another Athens County incident was a 2021 fire at an oil well in Amesville. While ODNR’s report said “we are uncertain as to how the fire started,” ODNR noted it had “visited site prior to this incident due to neglect by caretaker to get a leak fixed” which was allowing oil to spill down the hillside.

In a handful of Athens County incidents, ODNR determined the oil or gas released was not of a “reportable quantity.” One other incident was not substantiated.

Most investigations began after calls to the state’s Ohio’s One-Call Incident Notification, with others reported internally within ODNR.

All the Athens County incidents that were assigned a severity rating by ODNR were classified as minor. That’s not unusual — most incidents across the state received that classification, with only three incidents classified as major.

Ohio Oil and Gas Association President Brundett told Energy News Network that the limited prevalence of major incidents is “a testament to the industry’s rigorous safety standards and practices.”

However, hazardous materials expert Silverio Caggiano told Energy News Network that even one minor incident per week is still high, given that even minor spills often involve toxic materials.

Klenke told the Independent that ODNR’s classifications represent “kind of a big discrepancy in what ODNR is capturing versus what’s actually happening.”

“A good chunk of them are not actually minor,” Klenke said. 

To illustrate the point, Klenke pointed to one incident in the dataset: a Toledo house explosion that injured five people. ODNR categorized it as “moderate,” rather than “major.”

Klenke described ODNR’s data collection process as woefully lacking, overall. 

Most incidents did not require follow-up reporting, which Klenke said made it difficult to get information on most incidents beyond the limited narratives included in the ODNR’s dataset. Additionally, much of the data FracTracker initially received was inconsistent and incomplete, making it difficult to analyze.

In FracTracker’s report, the nonprofit said it was unable to identify documentation defining criteria for different levels of severity. Combined with the data’s other limitations, Klenke said that lack makes it difficult for anyone to evaluate the risks posed by the industry.

“There could be nothing to worry about in Athens County, but because ODNR reporting is so poor, [residents] cannot make that distinction for themselves, and neither can we,” Klenke said.

Representatives of ODNR and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association did not immediately respond to the Independent’s request for comment.

The post ODNR investigated 26 Athens County oil and gas incidents in last five years appeared first on Athens County Independent.

A pair of cousins who want to lease land for a contested solar project in central Ohio say a vocal minority is trying to interfere with their property rights.

“I have rights as an owner, farmer and investor that shouldn’t be limited by a small group of individuals who are opposed to any solar development,” said Richard Piar. He and Ethan Robertson jointly own two parcels of property in Knox County, which they want to lease to developer Open Road Renewables for the proposed 120 megawatt Frasier Solar project.

Much of the public debate surrounding the project has pitted local groups that oppose solar energy on agricultural land against the developer and clean energy advocates. But for the cousins, the project is a way to bring in new revenue and help keep the land in the fourth-generation farm family. 

“Solar gives my family opportunities it otherwise would not have for a financial future,” Piar said.

Robertson is now seeking to intervene in the Ohio Power Siting Board case that will decide the project’s fate, and the cousins recently shared with Energy News Network how the project is important to them and their property rights.

“When someone who is not a farmer can tell us farmers what we can do with our land, it creates a slippery slope for property rights,” Piar said.

Concerns about conservation also factored into the cousins’ decision to lease the land, which the solar farm will have to restore at the end of the project. In Robertson’s view, those terms counter opponents’ arguments about blocking the project to protect farmland, especially when much of it – on the outskirts of Mount Vernon in Clinton and Miller townships, about an hour’s drive from Columbus – could otherwise become residential subdivisions.

“My children are nine, seven and five years old. This project is a key way to protect our land from the many ways this county may change over the next four decades,” Robertson said.

And much of the land in the Frasier Solar project will still be used for agricultural purposes while the solar project is in operation. On March 8, Open Road Renewables and New Slate Land Management announced they signed a letter of intent to use sheep grazing to manage vegetation for the project.

Brad Carothers, who runs New Slate, lives in Knox County and raises Katahdin sheep. When a letter came from Open Road Renewables about the Frasier Solar project, he reached out to the company.

“One of the main issues new and emerging farmers face is access to land,” Carothers said. “We’re a first-generation business. And so land is not something that I have from previous generations to utilize. And so this is how we can expand our business.”

Why zoning isn’t the issue

Under Ohio law, a landowner generally gets to control who has access to real property and how it is used, including the right to lease it to others. Zoning can restrict some uses to certain areas, such as industrial or commercial activities. 

For electric generation facilities, however, state law and rulings of the power siting board generally take precedence, except as provided in Senate Bill 52, said Jacob Bryce Elkin, one of Robertson’s lawyers who is with the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

The 2021 law lets counties ban solar projects from parts of their territory, but only if they were not already in the grid operator’s queue when the law became effective. 

“Frasier Solar clearly fits the bill to be grandfathered” under that exception, wrote Ohio Rep. Bill Seitz in a Feb. 23 letter urging the Ohio Power Siting Board to approve the project. Under the law, one county and one township representative will serve as ad hoc board members on the case.

Elkin also noted that while the Knox County Commissioners decided to ban wind farms in 2022, the same resolution said they would allow large solar facilities. So, because of SB 52, “if the OPSB grants the approval for the project, there’s nothing in local law that prohibits this project from being developed,” he said.

Yet when Knox Smart Development, an anonymously funded group opposing the solar project, hosted a program last month, speakers there talked about zoning and hypothetical situations that don’t apply to the solar farm case.

“For anybody preaching property rights, I always just like to ask them flat out: Does that mean you want to just ban or abolish all zoning?” said Jared Yost, a Mount Vernon resident who incorporated the group. Surely, he suggested at the Feb. 24 event, landowners wouldn’t want a chemical plant going in next door or sewage flowing into their yards.

Kevon Martis, a frequent opponent of renewable energy projects, took a similar tack, suggesting no one would want a 24-hour truck stop or adult bookstore next door – uses already governed by local zoning rules. 

“Everybody says, ‘I should be able to do what I want on my private property,’” Martis said. “And while they may mean that about them, they never mean that about their neighbors.”

A company official with Open Road Renewables was denied entry to the group’s Nov. 30 “town hall meeting” on the project. The group’s events have also denigrated the perspective of farmers and other landowners who will benefit from solar.

“In this project and a lot of projects like this, it’s easy for the supporters of the project to have their voices drowned out by a vocal minority of people opposing the project,” Elkin said.

Even aside from SB 52, zoning doesn’t let governments arbitrarily limit people’s use of their property, Elkin said. Instead, it needs to be rationally related to legitimate land use concerns.

“The onus is really on the opponents to put forward a case that’s grounded in fact, and they haven’t done that,” Elkin said.

What about the neighbors?

Filings by Preserve Knox County and Knox Smart Development in the Ohio Power Siting Board case claim the Frasier Solar project could interfere with adjacent owners’ property rights. And Robert Bryce, a former fellow with the Manhattan Institute, which has been linked to fossil fuel interests, claimed it was “BS” to think solar projects wouldn’t hurt property values in an area.

Among other things, Bryce cited a 2023 study in the journal Energy Policy by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Connecticut. The study team’s analysis of 1.8 million real estate transactions found, on average, a 1.5% impact on sale prices for homes within half a mile of a solar project.

However, data for the study ranged from 2003 through 2020, which wouldn’t necessarily reflect the current real estate market. The study also didn’t compare the effects on property values near projects with or without measures to prevent potential negative impacts, although the authors did note that developers or policymakers have various tools to employ, such as landscape measures or compensation for neighbors.

The Ohio Power Siting Board revised its rules for solar farms after the Berkeley Lab study came out. The rule changes require setbacks from property lines, homes and roads. The rules also call for “aesthetically fitting” fencing and other requirements.

Open Road Renewables also stressed steps it takes to accommodate nearby landowners.

“We offer good neighbor agreements at all of our solar projects, and they generally include some sort of compensation,” said Craig Adair, the company’s vice president for development. Payments compensate for periodic disturbances during construction, while also letting neighbors benefit financially from the project, he explained.

Payments also encourage many neighbors to cooperate by sharing drainage tile information. That helps the company protect against problems with drainage or even improve local conditions, said Open Road president Cyrus Tashakori.

Robertson, Piar and other potential lessors are not alone when it comes to valuing property rights in Knox County.

Resident Steve Rex said he attended a Knox Smart Development meeting, which he felt was one-sided and presented inaccurate claims. Property owners shouldn’t have to worry about what other people think about how they use their land, he noted.

Franklin Brown, another Knox County resident, took exception to solar opponents trying to limit the rights of property owners for the Frasier Solar project. “The same conservative people say, ‘Well, we don’t want government up in our faces,’” Brown said. “But oh, here they do?”

The Ohio Power Siting Board is supposed to use statutory factors to decide whether a project moves ahead, rather than the number of supporters or opponents. However, the board has referred to local opposition in some past decisions blocking solar projects. The board will hold a public hearing on the Frasier Solar Project on April 4 at the Knox Memorial Theatre in Mount Vernon. The evidentiary hearing is currently scheduled for April 29.

Ohio landowners say solar opposition groups threaten their property rights is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

BUCHTEL, Ohio — Every year, thousands of people stop at the Buchtel spring to enjoy the free cold water that pours continuously from three pipes into a concrete trough. It’s been around for as long as any resident can remember; according to legend, Morgan’s Raiders watered their horses at the trough during the Civil War.

The spring is nestled between two houses on Franklin Avenue, just off SR 78, with three parking spots for people who come to collect water. It’s public property and free for anyone to use; Mayor Tom Taggart estimates at least 25 to 30 cars stop at the spring every day. 

Taggart, who moved to Buchtel in 1959, says he doesn’t drink the public water that comes from Nelsonville,   which uses a Hocking River aquifer. All of his drinking water comes from the spring. Taggart said the water from the spring “just tastes a lot better.” 

“A lot of people you talk to in Buchtel, that’s the only water they drink,” Taggart said. 

The spring is fed by an underground lake — which is linked to the Jobs Mine No. 2 that Jobs Coal Co. abandoned in 1925. Over time, the water from the underground lake infiltrated the abandoned mine, said Natalie Kruse Daniels, director of the environmental studies program at Ohio University. 

Unlike the city of Nelsonville’s service, the Buchtel spring is not an approved public water source, which would subject it to monitoring by the health department and Environmental Protection Agency.

“Nobody in the history of the spring’s existence has ever approached us to try to actually get that spring approved as a water source,” said Jack Pepper, administrator of the Athens City-County Health Department. 

Pepper said that on rare occasions people were admitted to the hospital with the same non-fatal waterborne illness, all of whom reported drinking from the spring. Pepper said those were the only times the health department tested the water. The health department must investigate certain diseases to identify a possible public health issue. These illnesses did not occur within the past 5 years.

But Pepper said that in the 20 years he has worked for the health department, it has only tested the water “two, maybe three times.” Even after testing the water from the spring, the department could not make a definitive connection between the illnesses and the water. 

“There are lots and lots of people that use it, and they use it consistently and they don’t get sick,”

Pepper, a lifelong Athens resident, said.

Pepper said the health department keeps records of the tests for 5 years before they are removed from the system, so the results of testing before 2019 are unavailable.

What’s in the water?

Buchtel is a small village spanning just above 300 acres with 518 residents, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Taggart describes Buchtel as an easygoing, retired community and a place where you know your neighbors. Prior to the 2000s, Buchtel residents generally did not have municipally provided water and sewer, rather relying on cisterns and septic.

“I won’t drink out of the tap — I don’t know if I ever drank out of the tap,” said Libby Watkins, 74. “We didn’t have running water when I was young, city water didn’t come up the street until I was in high school. So, we would go to the trough and get our water.”

Some Buchtel residents are more worried about the water they get from the city of Nelsonville than from the spring. Bruce said he doesn’t drink Buchtel’s tap water because he believes there are too many chemicals in it. 

“I hate to even shower in it,” said Rodney Galentin, a former Buchtel postmaster and local historian who cares for artifacts in the village’s Coal Miner’s Museum. 

They’re not wrong to worry. Annual consumer confidence reports indicate that the city of Nelsonville struggles to maintain acceptable levels of trihalomethanes, or TTHMs — by-products of drinking water disinfection. 

Consuming water with extremely high levels of TTHMs over a long period of time can cause liver, kidney, reproductive and central nervous system problems as well as an increased risk of getting cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

But is the spring water any safer?

As an unapproved water source, the spring is not tested for contaminants by the Environmental Protection Agency. However, the area is part of the Monday Creek watershed. The Ohio Watershed Data, a project of the environmental studies program at OU’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, monitors the watershed.

Kruse Daniels said that the test results from 2010 and 2011 show that the water had high levels of sulfate and elevated specific conductivity, or the water’s ability to carry an electric current — indicating a high level of dissolved materials, which can affect potability. It also had a pH value below 6.5, making it slightly acidic. Together, she said, the results indicate that the water has been affected by mining. 

But every water test is a snapshot in time, reflecting the season, the weather, size of the water pool and flow, Kruse Daniels said — OWD’s data is more than 10 years old.

To get more recent data, I collected four samples of the water between November 2023 and January, and tested them for pH and specific conductivity levels at OU’s environmental science lab. 

There is no enforceable health department standard for specific conductivity, but higher specific conductivity levels may cause water to have an unpleasant taste or smell, or aesthetic issues — but health implications are uncommon, according to The Ohio State University. In the case of this water source, a higher specific conductivity indicates the presence of nitrate, sulfate and/or other ions. 

Edward Abbiw, the lab’s coordinator, reported that the test results were consistent with mine-influenced water, just like the older ones from OWD.

Abbiw noted that two of the water samples were collected after heavy rain, which likely infiltrated the water source and diluted the sulfate levels. If all samples were collected during dry weather, he said, sulfate levels may be higher.

Kruse Daniels said those results do not indicate any health risks from consuming the spring water — but she didn’t give the water a clean bill of health. 

“My biggest concern with that is that we don’t measure for things like E. coli or fecal coliforms,” Kruse Daniels said. She said bacteria, such as E. coli, are regularly tested for and treated in approved water sources. E. coli indicates water contaminated by animal or human fecal matter and it can cause severe gastrointestinal illness.

“Without having data on the waterborne pathogens, it’s really hard to say anything about the safety,” Kruse Daniels said. She added that mines, especially shallower ones, have a connection to the surface and bacteria could infiltrate the water.

New water line project

In May 2023, the Ohio EPA approved Nelsonville’s application for funds from the Water Supply Revolving Loan program for water system improvements. Part of the project aims to resolve the ongoing issues with TTHMs. Another aim is installing new water lines to Buchtel, which until recently was served by a single outdated water line, with no backup supply. Outages left residents with no access to public water and occasionally caused the Nelsonville-York High School to close, according to the Ohio EPA’s Limited Environmental Review.

Construction on the new service line has yet to be announced, but the Ohio EPA expects construction to be completed by July 2024.

But while the new service lines will provide improved water quality and distribution, some residents likely still won’t drink from the tap. For Buchtel residents like LIbby Watkins, the spring is more than a water source; it’s part of their community’s identity. 

“I hope it’s always there,” Watkins said.

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