based in Youngstown, Ohio
News Release
www.frackfreeamerica.org
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For Immediate Release: December 28, 2016
Contact: Jane Spies, M.S.Ed.: Phone: 330-619-0730 or 234-201-8007 or e-mail:
[email protected]
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“Remembering the Earthquakes”: Supporters of Frackfree America National Coalition, based in Youngstown, Ohio, will attend a prayer service conducted by Reverend Monica Beasley-Martin to commemorate the upcoming fifth anniversary of the now-famous December 31, 2011 Youngstown, Ohio, 4.0 magnitude earthquake linked to a fracking waste injection well.
Concerned citizens will gather for the prayer on public property on Thursday, December 29, 2016, at 1:00 PM outside of the Coitsville Township Building at 3737 McCartney Road, Lowellville, Ohio.
Youngstown, Ohio, December 28, 2016 – Supporters of Frackfree America National Coalition, (FANC) based in Youngstown, Ohio, will attend a prayer service conducted by Reverend Monica Beasley-Martin, of Defenders of the Earth Outreach Mission, to commemorate the upcoming fifth anniversary of the now-famous December 31, 2011 Youngstown, Ohio, 4.0 magnitude earthquake linked to a fracking waste injection well.
Concerned citizens will gather for the prayer on public property on Thursday, December 29, 2016, at 1:00 PM outside of the Coitsville Township Building at 3737 McCartney Road, Lowellville, Ohio.
A focus of the event will be raising public awareness of the need to legally stop a proposed Coitsville, Ohio injection well, another Vienna injection well that is now operating, and an injection well in Weathersfield/Niles that may reopen if the state does not stand their ground in their excellent decision to protect the public interest by suspending the injection well. Halting these wells, and others, must be done in the interest of protecting public health, safety, and the environment.
The earthquake anniversary prayer comes at an especially appropriate moment in that, as mentioned above, Coitsville is facing the possible opening of an injection well. Furthermore, in an order dated December 23, 2016, a Franklin County Judge opened up the possibility of the restarting of a Weathersfield / Niles injection well that ODNR has already linked to man-made earthquakes. The state had wisely suspended operations at the injection well for over two years to protect the public health and safety of the community.
According to a December 24, 2016 Vindicator article reporting the possible restarting of the Weathersfield injection well,
“‘I’m a little shocked,’ said Gil Blair, an attorney and Weathersfield Township trustee, when informed of the decision by The Vindicator. ‘We just don’t need another earthquake. I’m troubled by the location in relation to the Meander Dam, downtown Niles, downtown Warren. I don’t think that’s the location to experiment with.’ “ [1]
Frackfree America National Coalition (FANC) calls for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to deny the Coitsville injection well permit and for the state of Ohio to stand its ground in the Weathersfield/ Niles injection well court case to keep the injection well closed. This must be done in order to protect Weathersfield/ Niles, especially since a federally listed high hazard dam is located about 2.73 miles from the injection well – much too close.
FANC says our local community and surrounding areas have already experienced numerous fracking-related and injection well-related, man-made earthquakes. The risk of causing a large or damaging earthquake, or even smaller tremors, by allowing injection into an “area of known seismic activity" is far too great and is unacceptable. Therefore, to protect the public health and safety, the Weathersfield injection well must not reopen and the Coitsville proposed well must be stopped.
FANC believes it is not a legitimate business activity when such operations endanger and put the community and public health and safety at such high, unacceptable risk of potentially large and damaging earthquakes. This is especially true considering that in the 1980s, geologist Ann Harris referred to northeastern Ohio as the “Eastern Disturbed Zone” due to all of the faults.[2]
It must be stressed that another major concern is that there is also a federally listed “high hazard dam” only 2.73 miles away from the Weathersfield injection well. FANC believes it would be immoral, negligent, and reckless to allow this injection well to operate in light of the state’s science-based, legal argument to suspend operations there in the interest of protecting public health and safety.
To read a FMV press release from August 11, 2016 that addresses issues with the Weathersfield / Niles, Ohio injection well in relation to the Meander Dam please see:
http://frackfreemahoning.blogspot.com/2016/08/three-fracking-waste-injection-wells-in.html
To read a FMV press release from July 11, 2016 addressing the proposed injection well in Coitsville, Ohio see:
http://frackfreemahoning.blogspot.com/2016/07/prayer-service-rally-july-12-2016.html
Also please see:
“ODNR: No comment on injection well ruling; company filed other legal action,” Vindicator, by Ed Runyan, December 28, 2016 http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/dec/28/odnr-wont-comment-on-reopening-of-well/
All media are invited.
For media inquiries or more information, please contact Frackfree America National Coalition at:
www.frackfreeamerica.org 234-201- 8007 or e-mail: [email protected]
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[1] “Franklin County judge rules in favor of reopening Weathersfield injection well,” Vindicator, by Ed Runyan, December 24, 2016 http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/dec/24/weathersfield-twp-injection-well-gets-ju/
[2] Mike Costarella, “Who’s At Fault?” Vindy.com, March 13, 2012, http://www.vindy.com/weblogs/shale-sheet-fracking/2012/mar/13/whos-fault/
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