OH Antis Force Change in Chemical Reporting, Everyone Less Safe
Ohio’s anti-drillers, in their zeal to needle the drilling industry, have just put everyone who lives near active drill sites at more risk than they once were. Following state law, drillers (until now) have filed a list of the chemicals they store and use for fracking with the Ohio Department of Environmental Resources (ODNR). Local first responders–police and firefighters–could then electronically retrieve that information from the ODNR website for any given well if an incident occurred, like a fire. But anti-drillers asked the federal government to intervene and that has now happened. The feds have said drillers must file paperwork listing the chemicals stored and used directly with local counties and municipalities.
Now, firefighters will have to haul out a paper file from some filing cabinet and rifle through it if there’s any kind of emergency–instead of using the much faster online version from ODNR. Congratulations Ohio anti-drillers! You’ve just made everyone in Ohio more unsafe…
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From time to time Athens County, OH pops up on the radar screen–mostly related to a misguided attempt by a few anti-drillers to ban fracking (see last month’s article 
Investors and those who watch the Utica Shale industry, including MDN, have long called on the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) to abandon annual reporting of gas and oil production and instead move to a more frequent reporting system–quarterly would be about right. Late last year MDN prematurely told you quarterly reporting was on the way (see 
An Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) representative told attendees at the YOUNG 2013 conference held this week in Youngstown that counties in southeastern Ohio are the “sweet spot” of the Utica Shale play because the pressure there is higher and because the shale layer includes an abundance of natural gas liquids. However, another speaker–an executive from CONSOL Energy–said counties in northeastern Ohio will continue to see successful drilling too. So don’t despair!