Lake Vesuvius in Wayne National Forest. TrekOhio
Conservation groups have filed an administrative protest challenging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) plan for a September auction of three parcels in Ohio's only national forest for oil and gas leasing. The parcels are adjacent to the Rover Pipeline.
The protest, filed Monday, targets the BLM's failure to adequately analyze the impacts of fracking and pipelines on watersheds, forests and endangered species and its decision to open portions of the Wayne National Forest to fracking. Construction of the Rover Pipeline, which could transport fracked gas from the Wayne, has been halted because of spills and numerous safety and environmental violations.
<p>"We're protesting this dangerous fracking plan because drinking water safety and public lands should come before corporate profits," said Taylor McKinnon with the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "The Ohio and Little Muskingum rivers provide precious water to millions of people in Ohio and downstream states. Pollution from fracking and faulty pipelines would be disastrous for the people who depend on this water."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMDE4MjgwNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODk4NjI4Mn0.AypZaYpyjOUz7aIjzK3iTWCWabLJ8sktQTKzfR_G0xU/img.jpg?width=980" id="d1989" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f55c03aca7e964106a03dd5edf92c5ff" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small placeholder="add photo credit..." class="image-media media-photo-credit">Center for Biological Diversity</small></p><p>Fracking would industrialize Ohio's only national forest with roads, well pads and gas lines. The infrastructure would threaten or destroy habitat for threatened and endangered species and damage watersheds and water supplies within and beyond the national forest. In 2014 a well pad caught fire in Monroe County, resulting in the contamination of a creek near the forest; wastewater and fracking chemicals spilled into Opossum Creek—an Ohio River tributary—killing 70,000 fish over a five-mile stretch.<br></p><p>"The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wayne-national-forest">Wayne National Forest</a> is a place for families to hike, hunt, fish, camp and enjoy nature. Toxic air pollution and pipeline corridors don't square with those values," said Nathan Johnson, public lands director with the <a href="http://www.theoec.org/" target="_blank">Ohio Environmental Council</a>. "Oil and gas development is a threat to the public's enjoyment of this special place, and the Ohio Environmental Council is committed to ensuring the Wayne National Forest is available for future generations of Ohioans."</p><p>"The co-conspiring of federal, state and local agencies to do the bidding of fossil fuel and energy companies while abdicating themselves from following federal and state laws is disgusting," said Tabitha Tripp, spokesperson for <a href="https://heartwood.org/" target="_blank">Heartwood</a>. "Incomplete and flawed environmental assessments not only place public health and safety at colossal risks, but leave a legacy of morbid consequences to our children and the environment."</p><p>Conservation groups filed protests challenging BLM oil and gas lease sales in December and March. In <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/wayne-national-forest-05-02-2017.php" target="_blank">May</a> the groups sued the BLM and other federal agencies for failing to protect endangered species and analyze other environmental impacts before opening the Wayne to fracking. In total about 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest are available for fracking.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"></p><div id="a0584" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5XFXBM1501682741"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="882994914363142146" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">'Government Violating Own Laws to Pave Way for Fracking Plan' in Ohio's Only National Forest https://t.co/dghI6eaF4u (via @EcoWatch)</div> — Sierra Club (@Sierra Club)<a href="https://twitter.com/SierraClub/statuses/882994914363142146">1499357367.0</a></blockquote></div><p></p><p>"The Wayne is Ohio's only national forest and it belongs to the people. As one of our last vestiges of wilderness, it should be preserved for generations to come instead of serving as a profit center for the fossil fuel industry," said Jen Miller, director of the <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/ohio" target="_blank">Sierra Club's Ohio Chapter</a>. "We call on the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to immediately stop the irreparable harm that industrial fracking and the dangerous ETP Rover Pipeline will invariably cause."<br></p>
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'Government Violating Own Laws to Pave Way for Fracking Plan' in Ohio's Only National Forest
06 July 2017
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Taylor McKinnon / Center for Biological Diversity
Conservation groups Wednesday expanded a lawsuit challenging a U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management plan to permit fracking in Ohio's only national forest.
The groups are challenging a new 1,147-acre March 2017 lease sale in Wayne National Forest and adding claims that the federal fracking plans violate the Endangered Species Act, threatening animals in the forest and downstream.
<p>"Federal officials should not be putting corporate profits ahead of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a>, safe drinking water and public health," Taylor McKinnon with the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, said. "The government is violating its own laws to pave the way for this dangerous fracking plan, and we can't let that happen."</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/lawsuit-fracking-wayne-forest-2389182895.html">In May</a> four conservation groups sued the federal agencies in U.S. District Court in Columbus for their failure to analyze impacts to public health, water, endangered species and the climate before opening 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest to fracking in 2016, and prior to leasing 670 acres of those lands to the oil industry in December.</p><p>The expanded lawsuit shows that fracking will threaten endangered mussels downstream from lease parcels, as well as endangered Indiana bats and threatened northern long-eared bats. The bats are already imperiled by forest fragmentation, white-nose syndrome and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a>. Habitat destruction, deadly wastewater pits and water contamination from fracking activities compound these threats.</p><p>"The Wayne National Forest is home to many species who can't afford to have their habitat damaged by oil and gas development," said Nathan Johnson, public lands director with the <a href="http://www.theoec.org/" target="_blank">Ohio Environmental Council</a>. "We need to do all we can to protect wildlife that can't protect themselves."</p><p>Fracking will industrialize Ohio's only national forest with roads, well pads and gas lines, the lawsuit asserts. In addition to destroying Indiana bat habitat, this infrastructure will pollute watersheds and water supplies that support millions of people, and endanger other federally protected species in the area.</p><p>"Fracking our national forest is the last spasm of crony capitalism on the eve of climate chaos," Tabitha Tripp, spokesperson for <a href="https://heartwood.org/" target="_blank">Heartwood</a>. "Our job is to shepherd some intact habitat through to the other side in the hopes that, while diminished, it will survive and be a refuge for as many resilient species as possible."</p><p>In 2014 a well pad caught fire in Monroe County, resulting in the contamination of a creek near the national forest. Wastewater and fracking chemicals spilled into Opossum Creek—an Ohio River tributary—killing 70,000 fish over a five-mile stretch.</p><p>"Fracking in Wayne National Forest would be nothing short of disastrous for Ohio's only national forest and the wildlife that depends on it," said <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a> staff attorney Elly Benson. "The industrialization and destruction that fracking would bring is the type of activity the forest's protections are meant to safeguard against. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management should do their job and protect this wild place, not green-light its destruction."</p><p>The Bureau of Land Management intends to lease 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest's Marietta Unit, setting up two-thirds of the unit to be auctioned off in upcoming quarterly Bureau of Land Management lease sales.</p>
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Photo credit: Wayne National Forest
Conservation groups filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday over invalid and outdated Endangered Species Act approvals of oil and gas leasing plans for the Wayne National Forest.
<p>The <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, Ohio Environmental Council, Heartwood and Sierra Club are challenging the approvals for failing to consider the effects of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/fracking/" target="_blank">fracking</a>, white-nose syndrome and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_blank">climate change</a> on the endangered Indiana bat and other protected species threatened with extinction.</p><p>"The Indiana bat is already over-stressed by white-nose syndrome and climate change. Summer bat detection rates in Ohio have declined by more than 50 percent since 2011," said Wendy Park, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "But instead of protecting this fragile species, the BLM and Forest Service are allowing the razing and pollution of important bat habitat in the Wayne for harmful fracking."</p><p>In December 2016 the BLM auctioned 719 acres of public land in the Wayne National Forest's Marietta Unit in southeast Ohio, opening up the forest to large-scale, high-volume fracking of the Marcellus and Utica shales for the first time. The groups' legal challenge aims to void this auction and halt fracking in the Wayne to protect the forest's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_blank">wildlife</a> and water.</p><div id="a1109" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="32X33B1491242881"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="809483740800028672" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">700+ Acres of Ohio's Only National Forest Sold for #Fracking https://t.co/HL089JsgGV @MarkRuffalo @sierraclub @CenterForBioDiv @joshfoxfilm</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/809483740800028672">1481830937.0</a></blockquote></div><p><span></span>The groups assert fracking would industrialize Ohio's only national forest, increase climate pollution, destroy the Indiana bat's habitat and risk contamination of water supplies that support endangered mussels and local communities.</p><p>"Pipelines, well pads and wastewater pits destroy habitat and harm people and wildlife," said Nathan Johnson, an attorney with the Ohio Environmental Council. "These impacts are real. In 2014, a frack pad fire and chemical spill near the Wayne forced the evacuation of local residents and killed tens of thousands of fish and mussels."<br><br>The 2014 Monroe County well pad fire resulted in the contamination of a creek near the national forest. Wastewater and fracking chemicals spilled into Opossum Creek—an Ohio River tributary—killing 70,000 fish over a five-mile stretch. </p><p>"Fracking the Wayne National Forest in Ohio is like kicking someone when they're down," said Tabitha Tripp of Heartwood. "This land has been overworked for the last 200 years. Are we not rich and wise enough now to let a tiny percentage go wild? Declining species need that. We need that. Instead, we are witness to the betrayal of the public trust and we have no recourse but to sue."</p><p>The groups have also filed an appeal with the secretary of the interior to challenge the December 2016 lease sale.</p><p>As of 2016, private fracking operators had nominated 18,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest's Marietta Unit for leasing, setting up this land to be auctioned off in upcoming lease sales that BLM conducts quarterly. Another lease auction is scheduled for March 23. BLM is accepting formal "protests" from the public for this <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage&currentPageId=70915" target="_blank">proposal</a> to auction over 1,100 acres of the forest until Feb. 13.</p><p>"There has been statewide opposition to leasing our only national forest for hydraulic fracturing. Ohio ranks 47th per capita in providing public lands to our state citizens. People do not want to hike near frack pads, smell diesel fuel in a forest or fear that streams and rivers are contaminated," said Loraine McCosker, southeast Ohio resident and co-chair of the Forests and Public Lands Committee of the Sierra Club Ohio Chapter.</p><p>"Along with the impact to citizens who depend on our forest to provide clean air and water and recreational lands, this habitat is critical for many endangered and declining species challenged by climate change and other threats. In addition, Ohio is currently receiving great quantities of fracking waste from within Ohio and adjacent states which is then injected into class 2 injection wells. This proposed extraction will increase the waste created thereby increasing this burden."</p>
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