Another Baby Step in Fracking Ohio’s Wayne National Forest
Wayne National Forest (WNF) is the only national forest in Ohio and portions of it are found in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Lawrence, Perry, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties. WNF is a “patchwork” of public land scattered among private land. Some 60% of the mineral rights below WNF are privately owned. Those mineral rights owners have been denied the use of their property rights going on a decade. The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controls drilling on federally-protected lands like WNF. Last November the BLM held a series of hearings about finally beginning to drill in WNF. In January we told you that the BLM is working on a draft Environmental Assessment for drilling in WNF (see Small Progress with Drilling in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest). The BLM is ready to share the draft EA and wants public input--which means we now take another baby step toward drilling in WNF. As we previously pointed out in January, the BLM has decided to wait on pursuing drilling in the “Athens Unit” until 2017. However, the BLM is taking the next step in the “Marietta Unit” now. The draft EA is for the Marietta Unit (full copy of the draft EA embedded below)...
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