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:

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.

The post Is water from the Buchtel spring safe to drink? appeared first on Athens County Independent.

ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — What began as Brian Koscho’s Ohio University graduate thesis is now eight interactive, immersive historical markers that bring local history to life. 

With more markers on the way, these spots showcase local history — often transcending Appalachian Ohio with ties to historical moments nationwide — and time itself. 

Through the Invisible Ground project, Koscho creates immersive, augmented reality historical markers that include ground plates with QR codes where one stands for optimal usage. Users can scan the QR code using the Invisible Ground app, then use their phone’s camera to see historical images overlaid on the present view. 

For example, users can see the Athens County Courthouse steps packed for a 1912 visit by Theodore Roosevelt, or the Albany Enterprise Academy superimposed over the empty field where it once stood.    

Each spot also includes — or will soon include — a sign with the QR code and historical information. The app also provides audio recordings with more information on the sites.

In the first episode of his local history podcast — also called Invisible Ground — Koscho asked, “What do you lose in a story when a building is gone?” 

“I think you lose a lot, and I think there’s a lot of different ways to look at that question,” Koscho said. “As you start diving into these things … you start to realize those points of connection [are] tied to bigger national things. … And so you lose, in that case, a whole voice and a whole part of the community’s history.”

The loss of structures often is tied to the loss of the people who built and used it, Koscho noted, such as the forced removal of Ohio’s indigenous people and for Black Americans. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter if the thing is still there, because the community is not there anymore,” Koscho said.

That makes looking at specific places all the more important, whether a structure remains or not, he said. Even if a building remains standing, its stories may not have survived.

“The building is the obvious big thing – it’s the physical thing on the landscape. It’s not a story. It’s not made up. It’s actually there,” Koscho said. When a structure is gone, “it’s not ever going to be back. And the only thing you can do is try to keep those stories.”

Although he has a passion for history, Koscho recognizes that his enthusiasm isn’t universal. Part of his work, he said, is making other folks interested in their local history, the dirt beneath their feet — hence the novel augmented reality app. 

“How can I make people in — especially in a crowded world of things vying for their attention — how can I make someone just as excited about these things … [as] I do when I just read about it,” Koscho said.

Koscho believes that each of the eight sites are all “places that offered important threads and stories that not only were important here, locally, and regionally, but that also had huge connections outward.”

The Independent visited each of these sites. Here’s what to know: 

Markers in Athens

1. Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Ohio University College Green, near Union and Court streets

Ground marker location: East Union Street sidewalk, just east of the Alumni Gateway

Erected in 1893, the monument commemorates the 2,610 Athens County residents who served in the Civil War. Among them was Milton Holland, the freed son of a Texas slave who earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm in 1865. 

“I think he’s the most important Civil War veteran from here,” Koscho said. “You could actually make the argument that we wouldn’t have won the Civil War, if it wasn’t for what he did.”

Koscho also noted how “evident” the monument is on the landscape, often a background in Ohio University student photos. 

2. Athens County Courthouse

1 S. Court St.

Ground marker location: Court Street sidewalk near Chase Bank opposite the courthouse; historical marker near courthouse entrance doorway

“Most people think that it’s the original courthouse, but it’s really the third one,” Koscho said. “The first one is the cabin that’s across from the football field.”

The existing courthouse indirectly tells the stories of the other two, Koscho explained. 

“It’s the second building … that would have been the one that Andrew Jackson Davison practiced law in for the first time,” Koscho said. “The second courthouse — before the one we have — is the one where Christopher Davis was held, and then taken from and taken down the street and lynched.” 

3. The Berry Hotel

Formerly 18 N. Court St.

Ground marker location: Court Street sidewalk outside Lucky’s Sports Tavern

A diner now stands on the site of the Berry Hotel on Court Street, just up the hill from the State Street intersection. African American entrepreneur Edward C. Berry and his wife Mattie established the hotel in 1882, making them the only Black business owners in the city. The hotel hosted many renowned guests, including U.S. presidents. It was demolished in 1974.

Scanning the QR code will display several images of the Berry Hotel, which Koscho calls “one of the most beautiful buildings in all of southeast Ohio.”

4. Mount Zion Baptist Church

32 W. Carpenter St.

Historical and ground markers location: In front of the church on East Carpenter Street

Although the Berry Hotel is long gone, the Mount Zion Baptist Church still stands. For Koscho, the church stands strong, despite the risk of “very much not being there.” Through community support and dedication, the church has survived the tests of time and is currently under renovation. 

5. Athens Asylum, “The Ridges”

OHIO Museum Complex and Kennedy Museum of Art, 100 Ridges Circle

Ground marker location: Flagpole near the stairs that connect parking lots in front of the Kennedy Museum; historical marker coming soon

Scanning the marker on the flagpole produces two images of the Ridges’ past. A sign with the asylum’s history is coming soon.

Markers in Athens County

6. Albany Enterprise Academy 

5533 Fire Department Lane, Albany

Historical and ground markers location: Empty lot on Washington Road near the Albany Volunteer Fire Department

The Albany Enterprise Academy was one of the more important facilities for early Black education in American history. Founded in 1864, the academy was the first educational institution created and run by Black Americans. Among its students were the son of Edward C. Berry, Milton Holland, and Olivia Davidson, an education activist who married Booker T. Washington. In addition to educating formerly enslaved people, the academy served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

“You have all these important people pass through locally and regionally and nationally, and it’s a huge, important thing,” Koscho said. “And there’s a giant Black community and all, but at the time. That’s not something that exists at all anymore — both the academy and the people in the community, right?” 

7. Coal Mining in Chauncey 

Chauncey Community Park, 8433 W. Bailey Road, Millfield

Historical and ground markers location: Near the shelterhouse close to the playground

The Chauncey Invisible Ground marker may be one of the project’s more striking historical markers. What was once an area for coal mining is now the Chauncey Community Park, featuring a playground, shelter houses and a skatepark; it’s also the trailhead for the Baileys Trail System. Scan the QR code and look across State Route 13 and toward the skate park for photos.

8. Tablertown 

Marker location: Kilvert Church, 21120 McGraw Road, Stewart

Ground marker coming soon

The Tablertown marker is still in progress, with internet connection being set up. However, the marker tells the story of the historic Black community, now called Kilvert. It describes Tablertown’s founding and how its history has been preserved through oral tradition, specifically through the work of Tablertown descendant David Butcher, who curates the nearby Tablertown People of Color Museum. 

For more information — on the sites and stories — visit findinvisibleground.com, listen to the podcast episodes and visit the historical markers (map available on website).

The post Invisible Ground historical markers merge past and present appeared first on Athens County Independent.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sweeping new restrictions on rights for transgender youth are coming to Ohio in April, with further restrictions on the horizon for transgender people of all ages. 

On Wednesday, Jan. 24, the Ohio Senate voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68, which will ban transgender healthcare for Ohio youth and bar trans girls and women from participating in school sports. This followed a Jan. 10 override vote by the Ohio House. 

When DeWine initially vetoed the legislation earlier this month, he proposed his own rules to restrict transgender healthcare. 

Jessie Hill, a legal expert with Case Western Reserve University, previously told the Independent that both HB 68 and DeWine’s draft administrative rules invite litigation, which could ultimately block or stall portions of the law from taking effect.

Earlier this week, the ACLU of Ohio announced a lawsuit against HB 68’s ban on gender-affirming care for youth.

However, Hill previously described the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Ohio, as “hostile to trans people.”

Despite legal challenges, Republican state legislators are pursuing even further restrictions on transgender rights. 

At a small online gathering of Michigan and Ohio Republican legislators to discuss future policy, HB 68’s primary sponsor, Rep. Gary Click, recently said it was a “very smart thought” to ban transgender healthcare for everyone, regardless of age, independent journalist Erin Reed reported. Click added, “We have to take one bite at a time, do it incrementally.”

Youth healthcare

HB 68 will prohibit transgender minors in Ohio from accessing gender-affirming care, including hormone replacement therapy and puberty-blocking medications. The bill also requires mental health providers to notify parents or guardians prior to providing treatment for a “gender-related condition.”

The bill allows minors already prescribed hormonal treatment or puberty-blockers in Ohio to continue their care. Still, at least 100 Ohio families with transgender members plan to leave the state as a result of Ohio’s anti-trans legislation. 

Local professional counselor and Rock Riffle Wellness Co-Owner Mosha Trout, who specializes in working with queer youths and whose business follows World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards, said she’s seen firsthand the fear and discomfort HB 68 has incited in her 22 clients this past week. She described the legislation as “destabilizing” to her clients’ mental health. 

“I wish … the people that had the power that made this happen, I wish they would have just sat with me, with my families, with my clients, and just watched us in therapy — to see the harm that was actually caused,” Trout said. 

For Trout, what is now important is to stress that care is still available — there are professionals ready to jump through hoops to get clients the care they need, whether it be counseling or a referral out of state.

“There’s several clients … they have this fear of, ‘I’m never going to be able to start this process, because now there’s this block,’ and I want that to be debunked,” Trout said. 

Trout also voiced concerns about the potential for a chilling effect on queer youth.

“It’s the silence that keeps people in the closet — like families in the closet — it’s like, ‘We can’t speak because now we have to hide,’” Trout said. 

Trout recommended affected parents and families consult the Ohio: Resource Guide on HB 68 by the Campaign for Southern Equality. 

Trout said, “I’ve been planning for this, so it is not going to change my work. I think the way that it will change is the referral sources I’ve had.”

Regarding the healthcare portions of the bill, Athens City Schools Superintendent Tom Gibbs said in an email, “those are decisions and discussions outside of what a school would be directly involved, with the exception of the parental notification requirements now imposed on school psychologists, counselors, etc. … We are awaiting specific legal guidance on those matters.”

Gibbs added, “These changes and restrictions will certainly have very negative impacts on the specific students and families targeted by the law, a very small population that is already marginalized in schools and society as a whole. … While I am not at liberty to speak for our entire Board of Education on these matters, I know that several of our Board Members and Administrators, including myself, have significant concerns about the negative impacts for specific children we serve.”

Sports

The bill also forbids transgender children from participating in sports with children with whom they share the same gender identity. It separates children’s sports by “sex,” with the exception of co-ed teams. The law also forbids complaints “against a school or school district for maintaining separate single-sex interscholastic athletic teams or sports.” 

In reference to the restrictions on athletics, Gibbs told the Independent in an email, “for those specific students impacted, I can only imagine this change will cause significant stress.” 

Gibbs previously told the Independent transgender students have participated on school athletic teams in Athens City Schools “and there have been no complaints or issues of which I am aware.”

Gibbs said, “There are legal questions, yet to be answered, that center around the apparent conflict between Ohio’s new statute and Federal Title IX Guidance. I would expect that the legal representatives for each District are reviewing those apparent discrepancies and will be providing additional guidance to us as we get closer to the implementation date of the new law.”

Other Athens County superintendents did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Hill, the Case Western legal expert, previously told the Independent she expects legal challenges to athletics restrictions in HB 68 based on Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools that receive federal funding. However, Hill said it is currently unclear if Title IX would offer legal protections for transgender students in the context of school sports.

Asked to comment on the bill’s impact on OU students and athletics, OU Media Relations Specialist Sam Pelham told the Independent, “We are currently reviewing its potential impact on existing University policies, procedures and processes before it officially becomes law.”

Hocking College did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

HB 68 was sponsored by Athens County representatives Jay Edwards (R-94, Nelsonville) and Don Jones (R-95, Freeport). Edwards previously told the Independent the bill was necessary because “minors should be protected” from gender-affirming healthcare, and cisgender girls “should be protected” from transgender girls “competing against them in sports.”

The 2024 Democratic candidate for Ohio Senate District 30, Ari Faber, who is trans, and the Democratic candidate for Ohio House District 94, Wenda Sheard, both previously shared their opposition to HB 68.

Restrictions on care for people of all ages

When DeWine vetoed HB 68, he signed an executive order banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors in Ohio, despite the fact that no such surgeries were being performed in the state. 

He also announced draft administrative rules that would broadly restrict healthcare for transgender people of all ages by setting up many more hurdles for both patients and providers. 

Although the administrative rules were proposed in part because DeWine vetoed HB 68, his press secretary Dan Tierney said the legislature’s override vote will not impact the proposed rules.

“The Governor and the administration plan to proceed with the rulemaking process,” Tierney said in an email. “Some of the rules cover policies not addressed in HB 68. Other aspects of the rules would be triggered if HB 68 is enjoined by lawsuit.”

If the rules go into effect as they are currently written, Ohio will have some of the most restrictive regulations on transgender healthcare for adults in the country.

The rules would:

• Require healthcare providers to report data regarding gender-affirming care for transgender people to the Ohio Department of Health, and require the data to then be shared in aggregate with the state legislature.
• Require hospitals that provide gender-affirming healthcare to engage a board-certified psychiatrist and endocrinologist in the patient’s care.
• Require hospitals to create a “written, comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care plan” for patients receiving gender-affirming care, which is reviewed by a medical ethicist. 
• Require that patients younger than 21 years old receive “comprehensive mental health evaluation at the hospital seeking to provide treatment” over a period of at least six months.

The public has until next Monday, Feb. 5 to submit comment to the Ohio Department of Health on DeWine’s proposals. The new rules would collect data “addressing gender-related conditions and treatment” and provide it to the General Assembly every six months, and restrict gender-affirming healthcare for people of all ages. Comments may be sent to ODHrules@odh.ohio.gov.

Tierney said DeWine’s administration will soon publish “amended rules that reflect the results of the public comment period.”

“While we are not yet at a point where I can discuss specific changes, the administration takes the public comment period seriously and respects those who participated in the process,” Tierney said.

Restrictions on transgender healthcare for adults are unusual in the United States, with proposed laws regulating such care having failed in multiple states. With these administrative rules, Ohio would join Florida in restricting transgender healthcare for adults.

DeWine’s proposed regulations are so extensive that, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, they could constitute a “de facto ban” on any and all gender affirming healthcare for all transgender Ohioans.

At minimum, the regulations would likely require significant staffing and procedural changes if hospitals continue providing gender-affirming treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, health researcher Kathryn Poe previously told the Independent. 

Such restructuring would pose a financial burden for health systems and could potentially prevent smaller providers in rural and suburban areas from offering care at all, given the multiple providers required to be involved in patient care, Poe said previously.

Equitas Health’s Director of Marketing Communications Anthony Clemente told the Independent the Ohio LGBTQ+ healthcare provider stands by its previous statement that it will “jump through whatever administrative hurdles we need to jump through to continue providing gender-affirming care to our patients and to avoid any disruptions in care.”

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio President and CEO Erica Wilson-Domer told the Independent, “Gender-affirming care is still available for adults at all 15 of our health centers, including the Athens Health Center, and online via telehealth through our Virtual Health Center. We are proud to provide high-quality gender-affirming care to adults in our communities, and we will continue to do so in accordance with Ohio law. Currently, we are working on ensuring we can continue to provide this critical care to patients in compliance with all legal requirements.”

Following the public comment period on the rules and the release of amendments, the rules would need to be approved by Ohio’s Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.

Tierney said he expects “final rule approval within several months.”

Note: This story has been updated to include a quote from Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio President and CEO Erica Wilson-Domer.

The post Ohio restricts transgender rights appeared first on Athens County Independent.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ohio — Ghosts populate the campus of Chatfield College.

They’re in the fading photos on the library walls of students who, over 177 years, attended the college and the boarding school from which it sprang, and of the Ursuline nuns who taught them, in their simple tunics and scapulars.

Amid seemingly endless acres of tobacco, soybean and wheat farms in a village in southwest Ohio with a population of 241, the now-closed college sits at the end of a narrow entrance road flanked by Bradford pear trees, colorless and bare in the winter gloom. Just about the only traffic on the way is an occasional stray chicken.

Chatfield has been shut down for a year now, though the buildings and grounds remain so neatly tended that they look as if they’re ready for the students to return. It’s among a fast-growing number of closed colleges in rural America, stripping communities of nearby higher education options to which young people can aspire and eventually go.

In this case, however, something unusual has happened: The assets left by the defunct college are being used to help at least some local students continue their educations past high school.

It’s a story that underscores the role played by colleges and universities in rural America, what’s lost when they close and how advocates are trying to keep the proportion of rural high school graduates who go to college from falling even further than it already has.

“It was a really great starting point for me, and it could have been a starting point for other students,” said Anna Robertson, 23, who attended Chatfield until the end.

Related: Rural universities, already few and far between, are being stripped of majors

Locals once saw greater potential for the college, which was founded in 1845 as a boarding school by an English-born Ursuline nun named Julia Chatfield. In the early 20th century, it benefited from being close to U.S. 50, a heavily trafficked major east-west route. And in 1971, it evolved into Chatfield College, which conferred two-year associate degrees.

“It was the heart of the area,” said Amber Saeidi Asl, who grew up next to the campus. She took courses offered by Chatfield through a dual-enrollment program while she was still in high school, and eventually went there.

Just having a college nearby inspired her to go, she said.

“The people of the area really wanted a college,” Sister Ellen Doyle, president from 1986 to 1997, said in a video history.

“A lot of kids that wouldn’t otherwise go to college felt comfortable coming here,” Mary Jacobs, a Chatfield graduate who later worked as its director of finance, said on the video. “If it hadn’t been for this college, a lot of them wouldn’t have attended college at all.”

But the interstate highway system long ago supplanted U.S. 50. Even the village where the college was located, St. Martin, was dissolved in 2011, when the population had dwindled to 129; the campus was absorbed into Fayetteville.

Like other small, rural, tuition-dependent and religiously affiliated institutions, Chatfield grew even more imperiled as Americans increasingly questioned the cost and value of postsecondary education. There are only about 80  two-year private, nonprofit colleges left, fewer than half as many as just 30 years ago.

It’s also in a part of the country that has been among the most acutely affected by a decline in the number of high school graduates and their interest in going to college. The number of students in Ohio’s public high schools slid by 7 percent from 2012 to 2022, and the percentage of them going directly to college fell to 53 percent by 2020, the most recent year for which the figure is available — nearly 10 percentage points below its peak, and well below the national average of 62 percent.

Related: MIT, Yale and other elite colleges are finally reaching out to rural students

Even though Chatfield accepted everyone who applied, and charged a comparatively low $14,080 in tuition and fees, it was down to 129 students in its last semester, according to federal data. Nearly half took their classes exclusively online.

With an annual budget of around $4.5 million, the college lost $373,520 in 2020 and $850,202 in 2021, tax records show.

“We could see the enrollment trends,” said Robert Elmore, Chatfield’s last president. “We just didn’t see how we could sustain this and continue operating.”

So the school announced in the fall of 2022 that it would shut down at the end of that semester, taking 70 jobs with it. It barely made the headlines. But it had joined more than a dozen other private, nonprofit universities and colleges in rural areas or that serve rural students that have closed or announced their closings just since 2020.

Those include Nebraska Christian College, Marlboro College in Vermont, Holy Family College in Wisconsin, Judson College in Alabama, Ohio Valley and Alderson Broaddus universities in West Virginia, Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in New Hampshire, Iowa Wesleyan University, Marymount California University, Cazenovia College in New York, Finlandia University in Michigan, Presentation College in South Dakota and Lincoln College, Lincoln Christian University and MacMurray College in Illinois.

Nearly 13 million Americans now live in places, mostly in the Midwest and Great Plains, where the nearest college or university is beyond a reasonable commute away, the American Council on Education reports. The nearest colleges to the Chatfield campus — a community college and a branch of the University of Cincinnati — are about 45 minutes away.

Related: A campaign to prod high school students into college tries a new tack: Making it simple

“For a lot of college students who are living in rural areas, it’s just not feasible to drive to one of the city universities,” said Robertson.

Helping overcome those kinds of obstacles is now the purpose of the nonprofit set up with the remaining Chatfield College endowment, which Elmore put at $4 million; the organization also claims the grounds and buildings as assets, valued along with the endowment at $11 million.

Called the Chatfield Edge, it has provided volunteer mentors, career counseling, assistance with admission and financial aid applications and other help to 21 students, and scholarships of about $1,500 per semester to 19 of them, said David Hesson, director of programs, who was an associate dean at the college.

It’s not only about getting students to college; the Chatfield Edge will also help with trade school and certificate programs. The target is low-income high school students who would be the first in their families to go to college and students who are older than the traditional age. Robertson, who now is finishing her bachelor’s degree at Asbury University in Kentucky, is among the beneficiaries.

“We said we don’t have to necessarily provide the education. But we could support them, and we know what that looks like, and we have the scholarship money to cover the gap,” Elmore said.

Other than Hesson and Elmore, the only employees left are a facilities director and the director of development. They work in the onetime student center. “We’re the whole gang,” said Hesson as he held open the door for some rare visitors. An Ursuline sister, Patricia Homan, has an office in a separate, otherwise empty building, and spends time in the library compiling an archive of the college’s history.

The small number of students it has helped so far speaks to the challenges faced by the Chatfield Edge and other organizations promoting access to college and other education after high school for young people growing up in rural places.

“A lot of the kids I knew grew up to do what their parents did,” said Saeidi Asl, who now volunteers as a mentor. “If your parents were farmers, you became a farmer. If your parents were truckers, you became a trucker.”

Related: Often overwhelmed on big campuses, rural college students push for support

That was not the case for Destiny Jones, who also was at Chatfield when it closed. “I didn’t think I was going to do well in the workforce without an education,” Jones said. “I’m a person who needs to be told how to do something.” Plus, “it was going to lead to a higher-paying job.”

Jones, who is 21, was speaking at a daycare center where she works during breaks to help make money for tuition at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati, which she now attends on her way to getting a degree in art education and becoming a teacher.

Going to Chatfield was much easier. “I didn’t feel like I had to stress about not being able to get there,” she said. Now, at Mount Saint Joseph, “I definitely get pretty homesick, especially in the middle of the semester.” As someone who is close to her family, “I didn’t want to be away.”

Chatfield’s very existence, Jones said, “made people think about college because it was close by.” Still, many of her high school classmates didn’t go. They took “blue-collar jobs, working in restaurants, doing mechanical work, construction — anything they can get their hands on.”

Rural high school graduates are far less likely to go directly to college than their suburban counterparts, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — 56 percent, compared to 62 percent, respectively. That’s down substantially in just the last three years.

A big reason for that is a lack of confidence, said Hesson. “They don’t think they can do it. It’s unknown.” And without a college close by, “you lose accessibility.”

Related: Aging states to college graduates: We’ll pay you to stay

Rural students who do go to college generally prefer to stay close to home, research shows.

Robertson, for instance, had never driven on a highway before Chatfield’s closing forced her to transfer to her Kentucky university, nearly two and a half hours away, which has 1,395 undergraduates.

“She said Asbury is such a big college, and I cracked up, because it’s not,” said April Houk, a Fayetteville resident who is Robertson’s volunteer mentor. “She was kind of like a deer in the headlights.” So Houk sent her a bouquet of flowers and some words of encouragement at the beginning of the school year; two weeks later, Robertson had joined some extracurricular clubs, found a friend to study with and was majoring in equine science with plans to become a veterinarian.

Still, Robertson said, she misses having a college closer to home, which was also cheaper, since she could commute. Her new life “is a pretty different experience,” she said, “because I’m living away from home for the first time. It’s a much bigger campus. There’s more of a sense of anonymity. It can be a little lonely.”

Small rural colleges are more supportive, said Homan, the Ursuline nun and archivist, who also went to Chatfield and later worked there and at a tiny branch campus in Cincinnati that has also closed. “I was the cheerleader,” she said. “I found students if they didn’t show up. If they didn’t have bus fare, we would help them with that.”

Her experience of working in the area “is that the older generation says, ‘I don’t have a college education and I did fine.’ Students aren’t looking for a college education. It is not the aspiration.”

Many, when they’re older, find they do need one, however. That was the case for Jackie Schmidt, who got her associate degree at Chatfield and went on to a successful career as an office manager and accounting manager before helping start a contract manufacturing company. When she was laid off — “I was 54 and had the rug pulled out from under me” — she found “the jobs I thought I was qualified for required a bachelor’s degree.” But “I was intimidated at this age to be going back to school.”

Schmidt, now 56, found her way to the Chatfield Edge and with its help enrolled in an online bachelor’s degree program in business administration.

With rural colleges closing, she said, “I worry because not only for kids just getting out of high school but adults who decide they want to go back to school — what avenues do they have?”

Chatfield College created a sense of community not only for its students, but for the surrounding township, said Houk, who lives a mile from the campus on a 1,300-acre farm. Her husband’s grandmother worked there as a cook, and Houk went to summer camps at Chatfield and was married in the chapel. “We loved this place,” she said. “It really has a lot of history.”

She looked around at the all-but-abandoned campus. “It almost makes you emotional — the integrity it brought to the community.” Even though it’s no longer operating, she said, “I still say, ‘I live one mile from Chatfield College at the stop sign.’ It’s sad to have it gone.”

Without the college, “We lose that educational opportunity and the gifts that these young people have if they were educated,” said Homan, who is now on the board of the Chatfield Edge and Schmidt’s mentor. She, too, looked around the campus. “Oh my gosh, it’s quiet. But it lives on. It does. I know that.”

This story about rural higher education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter.

The post After its college closes, a rural community fights to keep a path to education open appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sweeping restrictions on rights for transgender people may be coming to Ohio, with impacts that will be felt in Athens County and across the state.

On Wednesday, the Ohio House of Representatives voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68, which would ban transgender healthcare for Ohio youth and bar trans girls and women from participating in school sports.

The override vote will now move to the Ohio Senate, which, like the Ohio House, would have to override the governor’s veto with a three-fifths majority vote for the bill to become law. The bill would go into effect 90 days after the senate’s vote. The senate is to vote on Jan. 24. 

Additionally, DeWine signed an executive order last week banning gender affirming surgeries for minors in Ohio. Such surgeries were already not performed in the state, according to healthcare providers. 

The same day, DeWine announced draft administrative rules that would broadly restrict healthcare for transgender people of all ages by setting up many more hurdles for both patients and providers. 

The administration is taking public comments on DeWine’s proposals — to collect data “addressing gender-related conditions and treatment” and provide it to the General Assembly every six months, and to restrict gender affirming healthcare for people of all ages — via ODHrules@odh.ohio.gov until Feb. 5. 

The Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services is also taking public comment on a proposed rule and a proposed amendment from DeWine, both of which govern “procedures for gender transition care in private psychiatric hospitals as well as community behavioral health settings.” Comments may be sent via email at MH-SOT-rules@mha.ohio.gov, with the subject line “Comments on Gender Transition Care Rules,” no later than 5 p.m. next Friday, Jan. 19.

If the rules go into effect, Ohio will have among the most restrictive regulations on transgender healthcare for adults in the country.

The combined effect of the anti-trans policy moving through state government “is going to make it very difficult to be a transgender person” in Ohio, said Kathryn Poe, a nonbinary health researcher with the progressive nonprofit Policy Matters Ohio. 

Jessie Hill, a legal expert with Case Western Reserve University, said both HB 68 and DeWine’s draft administrative rules invite litigation. Such litigation could stall or ultimately block portions of HB 68 and DeWine’s administrative rules from taking effect.

However, Hill described the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Ohio, as “hostile to trans people.”

Multiple gender-affirming care providers, including Planned Parenthood and Equitas Health, have said they will continue to offer gender-affirming care as normal, unless and until the law requires they make adjustments.

Ban on gender-affirming care for youth

If it clears the three-fifths override hurdle in the Ohio Senate, HB 68 would, in part, prohibit transgender minors in Ohio from accessing gender-affirming care, including hormone replacement therapy and puberty-blocking drugs. The bill allows minors already prescribed hormonal treatment or puberty-blockers in Ohio to continue accessing care.

The bill directly contradicts the advice of every major medical organization and health authority. Transgender and gender nonconforming youth experience suicidal ideation at much higher rates than cisgender peers. Gender-affirming care greatly improves mental health and wellbeing for transgender and gender nonconforming children and adolescents. 

Among the bill’s 47 sponsors in the Ohio House of Representative are Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) and Don Jones (R-Freeport). Edwards and Jones both represent Athens County, after state redistricting split Athens between their respective districts, 94 and 95.

Edwards told the Independent in a written statement that “minors should be protected from life altering hormones” and “have no capacity to be diagnosing themselves.” 

“There is no way a child should be in control of the life altering medicine being put into their bodies,” Edwards said.

Children in Ohio receive gender-affirming medical treatment only when prescribed by a physician, according to Planned Parenthood.

Jones did not respond to multiple requests for comment directed to his office. Office staff for Brian Chavez (R-Marietta), who newly represents Athens County as a state senator for district 30, told the Independent Chavez was unavailable for comment.

Ari Faber, a trans person and Athens resident who will run as a Democrat against Chavez for Ohio Senate District 30, said HB 68 “has me thinking about what my life was like as a young, trans, queer person living in an incredibly conservative, Pentecostal home and then at an independent fundamental baptist college for two years.”

“Gender-affirming care literally saved my life and I am devastated for the children, teens, and young adults who will no longer have access to this care,” Faber said. “I am heartbroken for them and hate to think of anyone feeling the way I did for so many years. These kids and their families deserve better.”

“It’s exhausting, especially when we just want to be able to live our lives in peace and for trans youth to be able to grow into adults. … The [lack] of compassion and empathy is astounding and a slap in the face to trans people across the state,” Faber said.

Wenda Sheard, who will run as a Democrat this year for Ohio House District 94, said, “We need a legislature willing to focus on issues affecting everyday Ohioans rather than a legislature pretending they know more than medical professionals.” Sheard said the vote reflects a gerrymandered legislature and called for “citizens, not politicians to draw district maps, so voters can choose their legislators instead of legislators choosing their voters.”

Athens City School District Supt. Tom Gibbs shared his opposition to the bill in a statement concerning the bill’s impact on the district’s students.

“In my opinion, families should not be hindered in their ability to make medical decisions for their own children in collaboration with guidance and input from medical professionals,” Gibbs said.

Rhea Debussy, director of external affairs at Equitas Health, which operates in Athens and across the state, and Rock Riffle Wellness Co-Owner Mosha Trout, a local licensed professional counselor who works with queer youths, said they and their colleagues have been alarmed by the language proposed by the General Assembly and DeWine administration.

Both noted that the proposed changes will disproportionately affect children who are poor or live in rural areas.

“A lot of clients that I work with are probably more privileged than other folks, and they will be able to leave the state to receive services elsewhere,” Trout said. She added that she has seen firsthand from clients and colleagues the fear and anxiety HB 68 and the proposed rules have inspired.

“How do you not take it personally, in this way of feeling like there’s something so wrong with me that [the government] is getting involved — when this should be such a private matter between the client, the family and the care team,” Trout said. “There’s a lot of families right now that are like, ‘Do we just move?’”

Trout voiced concern over anti-trans legislation “giving permission to discriminate” and “trickling down” from the governor’s office to schools. 

School sports ban

HB 68 forbids transgender children from participating in sports with children with whom they share the same gender identity; it separates children’s sports by “sex,” with the exception of co-ed teams. The law also forbids complaints “against a school or school district for maintaining

separate single-sex interscholastic athletic teams or sports.” 

Edwards said the ban is necessary because, “I believe girls should be protected” from transgender girls, whom Edwards referred to as ‘boys,’ “competing against them in sports.”

Gibbs said in an email that the district “has long respected the right of individual students and their families to make decisions about gender identification and we have made adjustments as per the requests from the student and/or parents.”

Transgender students have participated on school athletic teams in Athens City Schools “and there have been no complaints or issues of which I am aware,” Gibbs said.

Pediatric exercise physiologist Emily Hill Guseman, an OU faculty member, said in a written statement that allowing trans students to participate in sports benefits everyone involved.

“Children and adolescents benefit from the sense of belonging that comes with membership on an inclusive team,” Hill Guseman said. “With high levels of depression and suicide in gender non-confirming youth, this sense of belonging is absolutely critical.”

Hill Guseman said youth sports benefit children primarily by providing education in “team work, perseverance, self-control, self-confidence, and a love for moving their bodies that can carry them into healthy adulthood. For all of these reasons, excluding trans girls and women from sport[s] is damaging for everyone involved.” 

Gibbs said this exclusion “serves only to further marginalize a very small portion of our population.”

He added that, in his opinion, requirements regarding school athletics appear to contradict Title IX guidance. Other Athens County superintendents did not respond to a request for comment.

Case Western legal expert Hill, who specializes in Title IX law, said she expects legal challenges to requirements on school athletics based on Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools that receive federal funding. However, Hill said it is currently unclear if Title IX would offer legal protections for transgender students in the context of school sports.

Rules proposed under Title IX by the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Education could offer legal clarity, Hill said, essentially invalidating the athletics portion of HB68 under Title IX rules. Those rules would prevent outright bans on transgender people participating in athletics, but would still allow individual schools to prohibit participation by transgender athletes.

However, those rules have been in development since early last year and Hill said the outcome is “very much up in the air.”

Both Ohio University and Hocking College declined to comment on HB68’s impact on university and college athletics prior to the bill becoming law.

A “de facto ban” on all trans care?

The administrative rules DeWine proposed last week to restrict transgender healthcare for people of all ages would:

• Require healthcare providers to report data regarding gender-affirming care for transgender people to the Ohio Department of Health, and require the data to then be shared in aggregate with the state legislature.
• Require hospitals that provide gender-affirming healthcare to engage a board-certified psychiatrist and endocrinologist in the patient’s care.
• Require hospitals to create a “written, comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care plan” for patients receiving gender-affirming care, which is reviewed by a medical ethicist. 
• Require that patients younger than 21 years old receive “comprehensive mental health evaluation at the hospital seeking to provide treatment” over a period of at least six months.

Restrictions on transgender healthcare for adults are unusual in the United States, with proposed laws regulating such care having failed in multiple states. With these administrative rules, Ohio would join Florida in restricting transgender healthcare for adults.

DeWine’s proposed regulations are so extensive that, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, they could constitute a “de facto ban” on any and all gender affirming healthcare for all transgender Ohioans.

“They’re really trying to ramp this up to create fear that people won’t be willing to actually help,” Trout said. “It’s using a position of power and control over my licensure and what is actually best practice.” 

At minimum, the regulations would likely require that hospitals restructure to continue providing gender-affirming treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, said Poe, the health researcher with Policy Matters Ohio. 

However, such restructuring — as well as the number of providers and/or contractual relationships that would be required to provide gender-affirming care under the administrative rules — would pose a financial burden for health systems, Poe said.

The requirements could potentially prevent smaller providers in rural and suburban areas from offering care at all, given the multiple providers required to be involved in patient care, Poe said.

Equitas Health’s Debussy described the policies as an attempt by DeWine’s administration to establish “de facto ban.” However, Debussy expressed confidence that Equitas will be able to continue offering gender-affirming care should the administrative rules go into effect. 

“We will jump through whatever administrative hurdles we need to jump through to continue providing gender-affirming care to our patients and to avoid any disruptions in care,” Debussy said. “We are fully prepared to fight these administrative rules at every step of the way.”

Equitas does not offer gender-affirming care at its Athens location but offers such care at other locations throughout the state. The provider is in the process of expanding its operations in the Athens area.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio currently offers hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients at its Athens location. 

Erica Wilson-Domer, the organization’s CEO, said in a statement, “These proposed rules are not based in science, and they go against recommendations from expert medical providers. Gender-affirming care is lifesaving care, full stop.”

Wilson-Domer added, “It is vital that those seeking care understand that these proposed rules have not taken effect and there is no change in the way our patients receive gender-affirming care at this time. We are proud to provide high-quality gender-affirming care to adults in our communities, and we will continue to do so in accordance with Ohio law.

“Our doors are open, and if you are seeking this care, we are here for you – no matter what.”

PPGO did not respond to a request for comment by press time seeking clarity on whether locations would be able to continue prescribing under the proposed administrative rules.

Poe, who is currently completing a bioethics graduate degree, said including a medical ethicist in health decisions regarding gender-affirming healthcare is particularly unusual. Most major medical systems in the state employ at least one medical ethicist, but they are generally concerned with issues such as healthcare decisions relating to end-of-life and cultural practices, Poe said. In the case of gender-affirming healthcare, Poe said there is no ethical issue, because doctors and patients agree about the course of treatment.

Debussy said she finds DeWine’s proposal that deidentified data be collected from people experiencing “gender-related conditions” alarming. 

“This is a clear attempt to create a chilling effect that will reduce access to care in the state and ultimately, patients — whether or not they’re trans, nonbinary, gender expansive or intersex — have a right to determine who has access to their medical records, and suggesting that the Ohio General Assembly should have access to that data is highly unethical.”

DeWine’s press secretary, Dan Tierney, said in an email that “Data collection by the Ohio Department of Health is very commonplace. It is aggregate and does not identify individual patients. It has not had chilling effects in any other area of medicine where it is used.”

Tierney said the administration is concerned that “there is very little public data regarding diagnosis and treatment of gender dysphoria. For example, many proponents claim surgeries on minors have occurred in Ohio, while opponents claim no data shows that.” 

The data collection will “allow the public and policymakers to make informed decisions with actual data regarding the frequency of diagnoses and treatments for these medical conditions, just as is done with other medical conditions,” Tierney stated. 

Both Poe and Hill questioned the legal standing of the administrative orders. 

Poe believes the draft administrative rules are not “implementable as is” because there is “so much vagueness and ambiguity” in the language.

Hill, meanwhile, said it is unclear where DeWine derives the statutory authority to establish the rules, which could prompt legal challenges to the rules. 

“The governor doesn’t just get to make a law and neither do agencies — they have to have a statute that they are implementing — and I don’t think that they have that authority,” Hill said.

When asked which statute gives the governor power to establish such comprehensive restrictions on transgender healthcare, the ODH said “Ohio Revised Code sections 3701.13, 3701.23, 3722.06, and 3702.30 gives the Ohio Department of Health the authority to create these administrative rules.”

Following the public comment period on the rules, which ends Feb. 5, the rules would need to be approved by Ohio’s Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.

Regardless of how the legal process shakes out, the proposed rules have already had a negative impact on transgender people in Ohio, said Poe.

“The cruelty and the trauma of having rights go away via executive orders and regulatory rules — the point is to traumatize this community,” Poe said.

Micah McCarey, director of Ohio University’s LGBT Center, said the various anti-trans legislation moving through the state government has been “an ongoing source of stress” for LGBTQ OU student “since at least last spring” — impacting students’ sense of hope, and creating personal fears about access to healthcare for students and their loved ones. 

Trout affirmed that trans healthcare will continue — maybe at the risk of punishment by the state, or at the risk of safety, much like the history of abortion in the United States. 

“[It] will continue to continue even if there are laws against it,” Trout said. “It just makes it more riskier, and limits access.”

McCarey said, “The LGBTQ community … in the United States has been fighting these kinds of battles — for rights to autonomy and to wellness — for decades. We have to maintain our sense of pride and progress.”

Correction: A previous article misstated Guseman Hill’s profession. It has been updated with the most correct information.

The post Ohio moves to restrict trangender healthcare, sports participation appeared first on Athens County Independent.

ATHENS, Ohio — Local leaders are exploring ways to make solid waste management a government-led and -provided service, following the city of Athens’ decision to contract with a large waste management company over a local competitor. 

In November, the city announced it had accepted a bid from Rumpke Waste & Recycling, giving that company a multimillion-dollar, three-year contract effective Jan. 1, 2024. That contract could be the death knell for nonprofit Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers, Inc., which gets 40% of its annual revenue from contracts with the city of Athens.

AHRC has been the city’s waste hauler since 2014. Its contract with the city expired June 30. In April, the city rejected bids from both AHRC and Rumpke on the advice of Law Director Lisa Eliason, who said the bids were incomplete. 

Although the city’s contract with AHRC allowed for two one-year extensions at the same price, AHRC told the city it could not not continue to provide service at the existing rates.

The city cannot reinstate AHRC as its trash provider without issuing another call for bids — but it could exit its Rumpke contract if it forms or joins a council of governments. 

The Ohio Revised Code defines COGs as public entities comprising two or more political subdivisions (such as cities, townships or school districts) that enter into agreements with one another.

Athens Service-Safety Director Andy Stone confirmed that the city can terminate its contract with Rumpke any time in the next three years with 60 days’ notice.

AHRC would not exist under the proposed COG; the new entity, the Southeast Ohio Area Resources Council of Governments, would absorb AHRC and its assets. 

At a Dec. 13 public meeting about forming a COG, Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel said that Athens Mayor Steve Patterson favors joining the proposed COG. Patterson did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Athens City Law Director Lisa Eliason confirmed in an email Tuesday that she is currently reviewing a draft agreement and bylaws for the COG. 

AHRC Human Resources Manager and Executive Director-to-be Crissa Cummings said swift action is needed to save the organization, which will run through its cash reserves by May 2024. A COG cannot take on debt, she noted, so if AHRC falls into debt, its assets could not be absorbed by the COG.

At a Dec. 13 public meeting, Cummings said she believes a COG is “the best path forward” for AHRC. 

“This would be able to preserve the recycling infrastructure and those local union jobs by forming a council of governments to provide a regional approach to sustainable waste management,” Cummings said. 

County Commissioner Chris Chmiel spoke in favor of forming a COG at the Dec. 13 public meeting. “We’re gonna get through this, and we’re gonna be stronger and better than ever, I think,” Chmiel said. “In a council of governments … we serve our communities, and we serve our customers, with our residents and our communities.” 

A stark New Year

The idea of forming a council of governments to absorb AHRC has been kicked around since 2019 — between the city, county and AHRC, Cummings told the Independent. It wasn’t until the competitive bidding process between Rumpke and AHRC this year that forming a COG became imperative for the organization’s survival, she said.

“We’re financially stable for the moment, but we will not be long after Jan. 1,” Cummings told the Independent.  

The organization is already feeling the repercussions of losing the city contract. In late November, Cummings told the Independent that AHRC had 49 employees, 31 of whom were full time. 

When the Rumpke contract was announced, though, AHRC employees began putting in resignation notices; by Dec. 20, AHRC was down to 43 workers. Of the remaining employees, 35 are members of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Eight positions are non-union.

In an email to the Independent Tuesday, Cummings said AHRC plans to lay off five union employees and two non-union workers by the end of the month. Another two non-union jobs will be cut through layoffs or attrition in coming months, she said. 

“The full-time compost collection/processing [job] is now part time,” she wrote. “However, we have work for the person in another department, so the individual will stay on full time.”

Layoffs will be determined by seniority and classifications, she told the Independent. 

Cummings said in November that AHRC hopes to participate in SharedWork Ohio, “a layoff aversion program” that keeps workers employed at reduced, yet state-compensated, hours. 

“[SharedWork Ohio] can last for up to a year, so it’s a temporary solution,” Cummings said in November.  

While AHRC is losing employees, Rumpke is hiring. An FAQ from the company states that it will base its services for Athens from a Nelsonville location; Rumpke bought the Athens-Hocking Landfill from Logan-based business Kilbarger Construction, Inc. in 2021.

Commissioners mulling possibilities

The city of Athens and Athens County are already part of a council of governments — the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council. But while Chmiel (who is chair of SOPEC’s board of directors) favors joining a solid waste COG, his fellow commissioners appear to disagree on the county’s role in the organization. 

Minutes from the commissioners’ Dec. 5 meeting show that Charlie Adkins did not favor joining the COG due to liability; Lenny Eliason said it makes more sense for municipalities to participate, as opposed to the county; and Chris Chmiel favors the county becoming a charter member of the COG.

On Wednesday, Eliason told the Independent that he thinks “a council of governments is a good idea,” but believes the COG should form with the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District as a charter member, not Athens County. 

A solid waste district is a government body tasked with creating solid waste management plans for its areas. Each county in Ohio is required to be in a solid waste district, alone or with other counties. 

Up into the 1990s, sanitation was a service provided by the health department; the state created SWDs in the late 1980s to manage solid waste. AHRC, formed in 1987, shared employees and resources with the health department, and later the solid waste district starting in 1988, Cummings said in an email Thursday.

Cummings said in a November interview that solid waste collection was in the hands of the AHSWD, while AHRC supported recycling; The two entities maintained that sort of “legal relationship” up until 2014. That year, due to liability concerns, AHRC and AHSWD split.

AHRC went from a “private nonprofit union shop [to] a public nonprofit union shop,” Rural Action Zero Waste Co-Director and former AHRC Director Ed Newman said in an email Thursday.

“With the split between the solid waste district and the nonprofit [in 2014] … [recycling] became the sole purview of [AHRC],” Cummings said. “So with the split between the solid waste district and the nonprofit, now they had to put everything out to bid … When the collection of trash and recycling is handled by a governmental agency, communities don’t have to send it out to bid — they can contract directly with that government agency.”

The six Athens and Hocking counties commissioners sit on the AHSWD board. Adkins said in an interview Wednesday that he is “very interested” in a COG for waste management. 

“I believe, if we don’t get a handle at this point, that recycling in Athens County … as we know it, won’t be here, because I believe the cost is eventually going way up,” Adkins said. “My fear is then more recyclables are going to head to the dump.”

Adkins agreed with Eliason that the commissioners should participate in the COG through the solid waste district, as opposed to the county; if the county were to join in addition to the SWD, due to commissioners membership within the SWD, the COG would then be two groups of the same people on one board. 

Joining the COG as the county could introduce conflicts of interest, Adkins explained, as the commissioners would have “fiduciary responsibility” both for the county and the solid waste district; what’s best for the county may not be best for the district, he said.

The solid waste district board will meet Feb. 5, 2024, to discuss a COG, WOUB reported. 

Adkins said, “If that goes through, our part might be pretty quick.” After that, the matter would move onto “the villages and cities and townships, whoever wants to get involved. … They’re gonna have to bring it up for readings … and that can be a slow process.” 

Additionally, according to the Ohio Auditor of State, a COG cannot take any action other than formation for 30 days after filing with the state. 

Adkins hopes a COG can form early next year, and that later, Hocking County would join. 

“I’m going to do what I can to support more recycling at a cost where people will recycle,” Adkins said. “Some will walk across hot sands to recycle, and some’s not gonna walk across the street.” 

The post Officials eye solid waste solution as nonprofit shrinks operations appeared first on Athens County Independent.

Public records show Ohio regulators log hundreds of incidents each year dealing with chemical releases related to the oil and gas industry.

Such events raise critics’ concerns about plans to drill for oil and gas under state-owned parks and wildlife areas. While most problems happen at rigs and wellheads, which will be outside the parks, critics say airborne releases of methane or other chemicals would not be limited to property boundaries. And they fear that runoff could reach groundwater or surface water sources for state parks and nearby areas.

Jenny Morgan, a volunteer with the group Save Ohio Parks, said she asked the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for public records after Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said in a radio appearance last month that environmental problems and safety-related events “are certainly isolated events” when considered in light of the amount of industrial activity over the past 13 years.

Brundrett told the Energy News Network the state has nearly 63,000 oil and gas wells and thousands of miles of gas pipelines. And he focused on incidents that rose to the level of “major” or “severe” problems.

Morgan said the ODNR documents provide a very different perspective.

She also noted an event earlier this week, where a gas leak at a Guernsey County well pad triggered a mandatory evacuation within a half-mile radius. The sheriff lifted the order Monday night, but cautioned residents to seek medical attention if they had headaches, dizziness or trouble breathing.

The ODNR spreadsheets sent to Morgan last week show approximately 1,530 incidents from the start of 2018 through Sept. 10 of this year.

Agency personnel classified three events as “major” or “severe,” meaning they presented relatively high degrees of public safety or environmental impacts. They took up to a day or longer to control and required involvement by multiple agencies.

A “major” event on July 11 required the evacuation of more than 450 people in Columbiana County due to a well pad gas leak, for example.

Another two dozen incidents rose to the level of “moderate” events. ODNR’s spreadsheets say those events involved “considerable” public safety or environmental impacts. Problems took up to 12 hours to control, often with involvement from multiple agencies. Chemical releases exceeded various regulatory reporting thresholds.

Roughly 790 events during the nearly six-year period fit into ODNR’s “minor” category. The spreadsheets indicate those situations were stabilized in less than four hours with minimal public safety or environmental impact.

On Sept. 4, for example, a landowner accidentally struck a line with a brush hog, causing a gas leak. On Aug. 29, crude oil from a small flowline leak in Carroll County reached a dry ditch. On April 24, a Guernsey County site had a combustor fire while a truck was loading up at a well pad. A Jan. 7 “loss of well control” led to small amounts of brine on the soil and drainage area for a Noble County site.

Many of the remaining 600 or so events on the spreadsheets reflected referrals from other agencies, cases where ODNR gave technical assistance and matters outside the scope of ODNR’s oil and gas management work.

Events within ODNR’s jurisdiction dealt with oil and gas or brine and other fluids from both conventional and fracked horizontal wells.

“The ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources management will continue to carry out regulations set by statute and work to respond to incidents that need to be addressed,” said spokesperson Andy Chow, responding to the Energy News Network’s request for comment about public concerns over releases of oil, gas, brine or other materials into the environment.

“We’re just astounded at the fact that you could have this number of accidents and say that the oil and gas industry is safe,” said Melinda Zemper, another Save Ohio Parks member. The group is planning a rally at the Ohio Statehouse on Friday, Oct. 27, at noon.

Understating problems?

ODNR’s categories seem to understate the problem, said Silverio Caggiano, a hazardous materials expert whose three decades of experience includes work with the Youngstown Fire Department and Mahoning County hazardous materials team.

For example, ODNR categorized as moderate a June 2019 Harrison County event where explosions and fire damaged nine tanks in the wake of thunderstorms at a fracked well site. The report surmises that most well condensate and brine burned. But approximately 11,000 gallons of brine were released onto a well pad. Booms and pads were needed to stop flow where the well pad’s containment was damaged.

“Moderate” events earlier this year include an April 4 wellhead fire and a June 1 explosion.

A “minor” event on Feb. 1, 2019, released approximately four barrels of brine at an injection well site in Licking County due to frozen pipes. The spill was apparently contained on the well pad, but trucks for cleanup couldn’t reach the site right away due to a snow emergency.

Multiple incidents in the ODNR spreadsheets involve injection wells and transport of brine or other waste fluids. Brine is super salty water that comes up from wells. It often has elevated levels of heavy metals, as well as naturally occurring radioactive material. Brine waste is generally disposed of in underground injection wells.

The oil and gas industry also adds chemicals to fluids pumped into horizontal wells shortly after drilling to fracture, or frack, shale rock so oil and gas can flow out. Much of the fluids comes back up before oil and gas production begins and most of the waste must also be disposed of in deep injection wells.

“The sad thing is that a lot of these chemicals are unknown because they don’t have safety data sheets with them,” Caggiano said.

Even if one excludes complaints about odor, smell or plain informational reports, “you’re still looking at 50 to 60 calls a year” statewide, Caggiano added.

In Caggiano’s view, an average of one call a week, even for “minor” incidents, belies the industry’s claims that there are few problems. Even quickly cleaned-up releases involve chemicals that can be toxic, he said. And “obviously [prevention plans] didn’t work, because you had an incident,” he said.

“The fact that there have been only three major incidents since 2018 is a testament to the industry’s rigorous safety standards and practices,” said Brundrett at the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. “Considering that only .004% of Ohio oil and gas operations have had a major reportable incident during that timeframe, I would put our industry’s safety numbers against any other manual industry in Ohio.”

The information from the spreadsheets also “highlights the important steps of transparency and government cooperation that the oil and gas industry has adopted to minimize risk to the environment, our employees and the people of Ohio,” Brundrett added.

However, critics don’t discount “moderate” or even “minor” events.

“The cost is the collateral damage to the people and the environment in these areas,” said Roxanne Groff, another member of Save Ohio Parks.

The logged incidents also raise worries for her and others about proposals to drill under Ohio state-owned lands, including Salt Fork and Wolf Run state parks and Valley Run and Zepernick wildlife areas.

“What if it happens around Salt Fork? What if it goes into one of the major feeds into Wolf Run or Salt Fork Lake?” Groff said.The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission plans to rule on the proposals to drill under ODNR land before the end of the year.

Ohio oil and gas industry accident data boost worries about drilling under state parks 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.

TORCH, Ohio — Four fracking waste injection wells in Athens County have temporarily suspended operations by order of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which says the wells present an “imminent danger” to health and the environment.

On May 1, ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management ordered the suspension of a Class II injection well in Rome Township on grounds that its operator, Reliable Enterprises LLC, violated an Ohio Administrative Code section that bars operators from contaminating or polluting surface land and surface or subsurface water. In late June, three wells in Torch operated by K&H Partners were suspended on the same grounds.

Applications for new Class II injection wells from both Reliable Enterprises and K&H were denied because of the suspensions. K&H’s application for a fourth well at its $43 million facility in Torch generated controversy when it was proposed in 2018.

Class II wells are used to contain toxic waste from oil and gas production thousands of feet underground. The wells are intended to isolate the waste water, known as brine, from groundwater.

However, the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management found that waste fluid injected into the three K&H wells had spread at least 1.5 miles underground and was rising to the surface through oil and gas production wells in Athens and Washington counties.

Waste injected into the Rome Township well spread to oil and gas production wells as far as two miles away, also in both Athens and Washington counties, the division said.

That suggests that all four wells “endanger and are likely to endanger public health, safety, or the environment,” the ODNR orders said. If the wells continue to operate, the ODNR orders say “additional impacts may occur in the future and are likely to contaminate the land, surface waters, or subsurface waters.”

The suspension orders for both K&H and Reliable Enterprises say the wells cannot resume operation until “the conditions that caused the suspension have been corrected.”

K&H fought its order in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, but the court found that it did not have jurisdiction in the case — the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission did. The commission was already considering the company’s appeal, which remains pending.

Reliable Enterprises did not appeal its suspension order, according to the commission’s docket, which the Independent obtained through a records request.

Two Class II wells in Noble County were also suspended earlier this year over threats to local water supplies. The order suspending those wells reported issues with brine flowing to the surface since 2010 and referenced multiple instances of uncontrolled brine release that required corrective action from the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.

A 2021 incident cost the division $1.2 million to repair. In January of this year, another uncontrolled brine release occurred at one of the wells. The suspension order for the Noble County wells came days later.

Threats to water

Although the composition of fracking fluid is generally considered a “trade secret,” monitoring suggests the waste is highly hazardous.

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.

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.

Mark Bruce, then an administrative officer with the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, told the Independent in August that “ODNR has received no evidence or reports that any groundwater, surface water, or water wells have been impacted” by fracking waste that migrated from the K&H wells in Torch. Bruce has since left his position.

The absence of evidence showing impacts on drinking water doesn’t necessarily mean that no impact has occurred, said Ted Auch, midwest program director for FracTracker. Auch is particularly concerned for Athens County residents who rely on well water, who may have limited ability to monitor possible contamination.

Likewise, Julie Weatherington-Rice, a hydrogeologist and Columbus-based senior scientist at Bennett and Williams Environmental Consultants, said the brine migration incident “certainly” threatens water supplies.

“Yes, we can lose public water supplies; yes, we can lose private water supplies,” Weatherington-Rice said. She added that it is difficult to know how far the impact could extend in any specific incident of brine migration.

Bruce said residents can report suspected impacts to the ODNR by calling (614) 265-6922, adding that the department will investigate reports.

In addition to disposal through injection, fracking waste in Ohio is also used to salt roadways despite its radioactivity. Advocates, including the Ohio Brine Task Force, say this poses a grave environmental threat.

A risky place for underground injection

“All injection wells have the potential to leak,” said Weatherington-Rice. “What was down there already has to move … so it’s gonna go in all the fissures and the joints and the cracks … and you’re overloading the system. Eventually the glass is gonna overflow.”

This is particularly problematic since geologists do not know the locations of many fault lines or of many abandoned wells and mines through which injected brine can reach surface and groundwater sources, she explained. Many faults are discovered only through seismic events induced by fracking and wastewater injection. One such event occurred recently in Washington County.

Production well operators near Torch have alleged their operations were affected by migrating fracking waste for years, according to the ODNR order.

In a 2016 investigation, the ODNR determined that it was unlikely the K&H wells were affecting the production wells. But in its June order, the department stated that more recent developments “undermine that 2016 investigation and demonstrate that its conclusion is wrong.”

In finding that fracking waste was migrating from the K&H wells, ODNR noted that K&H was injecting “large volumes of fluid” into the wells “at pressures that have increased.”

In 2019, the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management found evidence that brine water was migrating from injection wells in Washington County, affecting 28 nearby production wells.

ODNR believes fluid is migrating from the K&H wells in the same manner as in Washington County. Before its Washington County investigation, “the Division did not contemplate that injected fluid could migrate in the manner described in that report,” according to the June suspension order.

That claim doesn’t float with Weatherington-Rice.

“I just find that statement borderline ludicrous,” she said. “Anybody who has an undergraduate degree in geology, who went to a good school and did field work … would know better than that.”

Weatherington-Rice added, “Ohio does not have magic geology” that would accept injection of large amounts of waste fluid without posing any risk.

The Ohio shale formation into which the K&H wells and the Reliable Enterprises well inject is a particularly risky geology for underground injection, according to Weatherington-Rice.

In its order denying Reliable Enterprises’s application for a second well, the ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management pointed to issues with migrating fluid at its well in Rome Township. The order said, “an Ohio shale injection zone poses a substantial risk” for migration.

Likewise, in its order denying K&H’s application for a fourth well, the division cited “demonstrated problems with injecting into similar injection zones,” referring to waste injection into the Ohio shale near suspended wells.

The Buckeye Environmental Network and Ohio Brine Task Force, two Ohio environmental advocacy groups, have called for a suspension of all Class II wells injecting into the Ohio shale for over a decade, according to a Sept. 5 press release.

The release quoted Weatherington-Rice’s description of the Ohio shale as “holier than a Swiss cheese.”

K&H fights back

K&H Partners won a temporary restraining order from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in early June, after Judge Mark Serrott found that ODNR had deprived the company of its property rights. The company also appealed the decision to the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission; that case is pending.

In seeking the temporary restraining order, K&H argued that the company, owned by the huge investment fund Blackstone, would face “catastrophic and irreparable harm from an indefinite suspension of its injection well facility,” citing a threat to K&H’s $1.2 million annual payroll.

K&H paid a $500,000 bond for a 15-day extension of the initial restraining order that allowed it to continue operation.

The primary basis of K&H’s case — both in Franklin County and before the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission — is a June 2020 report from an independent consulting firm. K&H hired the firm the month before to investigate complaints that its injected wastewater was migrating to production wells owned by Energex Power.

According to an appeal document, the firm reported no evidence “suggesting the K&H Partners [wells] are responsible for impacts to the surrounding oil and gas production wells.” The report said the brine appearing in production wells could be naturally occurring.

In its motion to dismiss the temporary restraining order, ODNR said the consultants’ report “does not undermine” findings of the agency’s multiyear investigation of the K&H wells, which found that the brine found in nearby production wells “cannot be plausibly explained as naturally originating.”

Although the ODNR has not yet seen evidence of water supplies contaminated by the K&H wells, the ODNR said in its motion to dismiss that the wells should be suspended to prevent such contamination from occurring: “Once an underground aquifer has been contaminated by brine, there is no way to make it safe again,” the motion states. “The damage is done, and it cannot be undone.

“Accordingly, when an injection well is showing signs of migration, the Chief cannot and does not wait for evidence that the migration has actually impacted an aquifer before issuing an order suspending operation. If he did so, it would be too late.”

The Franklin County case was dismissed and the restraining order vacated on Aug. 2 after Serrott determined that his court lacked jurisdiction to oversee the case. That right falls to the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, which is already considering K&H’s appeal.

The commission will hold a private, quasi-judicial appeal to discuss the merits of the K&H appeal on Sept. 11, said Cory Haydocy, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission’s executive director. It is unclear how long it will take to resolve the appeal, Haydocy added.

K&H attorney Jonathan Olivito did not return a request for comment.

“We said it would happen”

K&H operates facilities across 3,600 acres in Athens and Washington counties, according to the company’s court filings. The company received permits for its three Torch wells in 2012, 2014 and 2015 amid fierce public opposition.

For local activists who participated in the initial fight against the wells, the recent ODNR suspension and denial orders only confirm what activists have said about injection wells all along.

“We said it would happen, and it did!” activist and former Athens County Commissioner Roxanne Groff said in the press release from the Buckeye Environmental Network and Ohio Brine Task Force. “From the first Class II Injection Well permit application in Athens County in 2011, scores of us protested the idea and stated clearly that drilling in this area would eventually cause the migration of fluids. ODNR’s self-proclaimed strict policies failed.”

Bruce, with the ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, told the Independent that despite recent migration of fracking waste, underground injection is “an effective and safe way to dispose of oilfield waste fluids.” Ohio’s regulatory framework ensures the wells “do not negatively impact public health, safety, or the environment and reduce risk as much as possible,” Bruce said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 2 billion gallons of fracking fluid are disposed of in about 180,000 Class II injection wells every day.

The post Local injection wells suspended over ‘imminent danger’ to drinking water appeared first on Athens County Independent.