Activists in Athens County rallied against the injection wells. (Photo provided by Roxanne Groff.)
After sounding the alarm on fracking waste injection wells for more than a decade, Roxanne Groff from Athens County is now finally starting to see some of the fruits of her and her friendsâ labor.
A handful of Athens County injection wells were suspended after Ohio Department of Natural Resources determined they pose an âimminent danger to the health and safety of the public and is likely to result in immediate substantial damage to the natural resources of the state,â according to letters from Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management Eric Vendel.
âI cried,â the 75-year-old activist said when she heard the news.
Groffâs advocacy against injection wells started back in 2012 with the HazelâGinsburg well. It has since grown to include many Southeast Ohio residents who are also sounding the alarm â something Groff believes helped led to the wells being suspended.
âAll of us together, all of the community members stood up for themselves and pushed back,â Groff said. âWe know that this is dangerous.â
Injection wells in Athens
There are seven class 2 injection wells in Athens County, but five are no longer in operation and the ODNR Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management expects those wells to be plugged, ODNR spokesperson Karina Cheung said in an email. Historically, three injection wells have been plugged in the county, she said.
Class 2 wells are used to inject fluids â primarily brines â associated with oil and natural gas production, according to the EPA.
Included in the five Athens wells that are out of operation are three K&H injection wells that were operational until a decision by the Oil and Gas Commission on April 19.
The plugging permits for the three K&H wells will be issued soon and will be effective for two years once they are issued, Cheung said. She said the wells will be plugged this summer (according to the company Tallgrass Energy that owns the K&H wells).
The Frost well was last used in 2021 and has been ordered to be plugged by the Chief of the Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management.
âThe company is in receivership and the Division has been in communication with the receiver about their obligation to plug the well,â Cheung said in an email.
Plugging a well includes removing all uncemented casing and tubing from the well, and using cement to plug the well â in a manner to isolate all oil, gas, and brine to formations that they originate in,â Cheung said.
The exact cost of plugging a well is tough to determine.
âPlugging costs vary due to differences in wells and the costs of abandonment and decommissioning of the surface storage facilities associated with the wells,â Cheung said in an email.
But just because the wells will eventually be plugged doesnât mean the environmental risks are gone, Athens County resident Susie Quinn said.
âAll the stuff that theyâve injected down there, itâs still down there,â she said. âThis is not a cleanup. Itâs just there stopping anymore from going in.â
The Quinns got earthquake insurance for their house nearly a decade ago because âweâve had so many little ones because of the fracking and injection wells.â
Groff echoed Quinnâs sentiments about the plugged wells.
âThe threat remains ⊠all that waste is there,â she said. âItâs down there. Itâs under pressure. If it feels like going somewhere, itâs going to find a crack, and itâs going to keep going through that crack ⊠until it gets to someplace where it either comes up to the surface or it just stops fracturing.â
Advocacy against the wells
The first Athens County injection well was the HazelâGinsburg well in 1984, Groff said. At the time Groff was an Athens County Commissioner, a role she served in from 1983 to 1995.
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It wasnât until 2012 when her advocacy related to fracking began, after Madeline ffitch was arrested for chaining herself to two barrels and blocking the driveway to the Ginsburg well.
The Ginsburg well was last used in 2015, Cheung said.
âThe Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management granted a permit to plug the Ginsberg well, but the owner of the well did not plug it within the permitâs two-year expiration date,â Cheung said in an email. âThe Division is conducting regulatory enforcement regarding the Ginsberg well.â
Local environmental groups started popping up, like Athens Countyâs Future Action Network and Torch CAN DO, which stands for Torch Clean Air Now, Defend Ohio. These groups helped organize informational meetings with epidemiologists and geologists as well as protests to spread the word about fracking and raise awareness. One of their protests was a Mad Hatterâs Tea Party complete with a Queen of Hearts and little toxic tea bottles.
Groff, along with the other activists who joined the fight, have been preaching for years about the environmental impact of injection wells.
âYou drill a hole into the ground and then you shove toxic radioactive waste under immense pressure,â Groff said. âNow what kind of fool do you think we are that you donât think that thatâs going to go somewhere?â
There were more than 1,400 fracking incidents associated with oil and gas wells in Ohio between 2018 and September 2023, according to FracTracker Alliance â a nonprofit that collects data on fracking pipelines.
There have been 26 incidents in Athens County during that same time period involving release, unintentional gas release and a fire, according to FracTracker.
âEverybody knew that was going to happen,â Groff said. âWe absolutely unequivocally knew that we were right. There was nothing that swayed anybody in this group from thinking that we were making stuff up.â
The Athens County Commissioners also got involved and held meetings.
âThese wells are just terrible and what theyâve done and everything that was said that was going to happen, happened,â Athens County Commissioner Charlie Adkins said.
Groff and the team of activists were overjoyed when ODNR ordered the injection wells to suspend operations.
âThe language they used is exactly what the people have been saying ⊠theyâre an imminent threat to the health and the welfare and well being of the environment and the people who live here,â Groff said.                           Â
Quinn always believed they could make a difference.
âWe went from Torch CAN DO to Torch can done,â she said. âWeâd like to pass our homesteads on to our children. We want to do this for our grandchildren.â
Fight continues
Even though some of the wells are no longer in use, Groff isnât hanging up her activist hat just yet.
For one, not all injection wells are suspended. The last two remaining wells in operation in Athens County are in Canaan Township and Lee Township, Cheung said.
The long-term effects of the injection wells are not totally known at the moment and could not show up for years or decades, Groff said.
Athens County Commissioner President Lenny Eliason said he would like to focus on long-term monitoring.
âAppalachia has been extracted for years for a number of different materials and the pain of the short term gains sticks around a long time after,â he said. âSo we have to get people that are more forward thinking about balancing what that short term gain is going to bring in the long term.â
When asked if the drinking water had been affected by the injection wells, Groff and Quinn said they donât know yet.
Referring to the state, Groff said ââYour incompetence caused this to happen. If you want to assure people that this is not an imminent threat and danger, then prove it and the only way you can prove it is to continue to test the water.â
Even though their advocacy is not quite done, they are relishing their victory.
âItâs not only just a huge win for everybody here in Athens County, itâs a message to the rest of the people in the state that, with due diligence, you can be in control,â Groff said. âYou just have to fight like hell to make yourself heard.â
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