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 Tom Schmida TWINSBURG — House District 37 candidate Tom Schmida today pledged his support for H.B. 596, the medical right-to-know bill, if he is elected on November 6. District 37 is in the northeast portion of Summit County.
H.B. 596, introduced earlier this month by Rep. Bob Hagan (Youngstown), would fix the medical right-to-know and ‘gag-order’ provisions of Ohio’s new hydraulic fracturing law. That measure contained provisions allowing drilling companies to hide chemical information from doctors, nurses, emergency responders, medical technologists, and medical researchers. It also put a gag order on medical professionals who do obtain this chemical information.
On October 30, Schmida wrote to Ohio Citizen Action:
“Should I be elected to the Ohio House of Representatives from District 37, I would be happy to cosponsor H.B. 596 or other legislation that serves the same purpose. Transparency and full disclosure are essential to protect the health of Ohio’s citizens related to the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Beyond the environmental impact issues related to fracking, I have additional concerns regarding the need for local communities to have more control over the permitting process and the protection of local infrastructure.”
Schmida’s opponent, State Rep. Kristina Dailey Roegner, voted for the defective hydraulic fracturing law last May and has not co-sponsored H.B. 596 to fix it.
— Melissa K. English, Development Director, Ohio Citizen Action
 Robert Armstrong H.B. 596, introduced earlier this month by Rep. Bob Hagan (Youngstown), would fix the medical right-to-know and ‘gag-order’ provisions of Ohio’s new hydraulic fracturing law. That measure contained provisions allowing drilling companies to hide chemical information from doctors, nurses, emergency responders, medical technologists, and medical researchers. It also put a gag order on medical professionals who do obtain this chemical information.
On October 25, Mr. Armstrong wrote to Ohio Citizen Action, saying –
“I want to go on record as a strong supporter of H.B. 596 and any other legislation which would require the oil and gas industry to disclose information about the chemicals used in the fracking process.”
Armstrong’s opponent, incumbent Gary Scherer, voted for the defective hydraulic fracturing law last May and has not co-sponsored legislation to fix it.
— Melissa K. English, Development Director, Ohio Citizen Action
 Mark Romanchuk CLEVELAND — The biggest contributor to Mark Romanchuk’s campaign for Ohio House District 2 representative has been Chesapeake Energy, according to his campaign finance filing last week with the Ohio Secretary of State. Chesapeake Energy contributed $4,000 to his campaign, a conspicuous amount for a state representative race. Romanchuk is running against Mansfield City Council member Ellen Haring for the open seat created when Rep. Jay Goyal decided not to run for re-election. The 31-year-old Goyal said he wanted to devote more time to his family’s business, Goyal Industries, a metals manufacturing firm making parts for passenger rail cars.
The amount of money coming to Romanchuk’s campaign from oil and gas interests may be understated, since he also received $68,567.08 in in-kind contributions from the Ohio Republican Party and Ohio House Republican Organization Committee. The original source of these channeled contributions cannot be determined.
According to Haring’s most recent filing available she has received no contributions from oil and gas interests.
In a recent article on the Ohio House District 2 race, Romanchuk and Haring gave contrasting views on hydraulic fracturing:
It is a game-changer. What we should be doing as a county is figuring out how we can be involved,” Romanchuk said. The state should partner with the industry, both to figure out how to take advantage of the economic boom and deal with the waste stream, he said.
Haring, one of the city council members who unanimously supported a charter amendment proposal allowing the City of Mansfield to have a say over whether injection wells are constructed within city boundaries, was more cautious. The boom will mean jobs, she said. “But as Pennsylvania has warned us, you better be ready to stay out front (of potential environmental hazards).” While horizontal drilling has been done for years, it has not been done at anywhere near the current level, she said. “We don’t know what can happen with hydraulic fracking. We’re not quite sure how stable those fissures are, and there was the seismic accident (near Youngstown). Yet we’re still moving ahead. Are we prepared, as a state?”
— Paul Ryder, Assistant Director, Ohio Citizen Action
CLEVELAND — Next Tuesday’s ballot in Mansfield includes Charter Amendment A, the central provision of which states –
It shall be unlawful for any person or corporation, or any director, officer, owner, or manager of a corporation or state government or any entity to use a corporation or state government or entity, to inject, deposit, store or transport waste water, “produced” water, “frack” water, brine or other materials, chemicals or by-products from the development of natural gas from shale formations, within, upon or through the land, air or waters of the City of Mansfield, without the written legislative consent of the City of Mansfield.
Full text of Amendment A
 Mailer to Mansfield voters from the American Petroleum Institute, the political arm of the U.S. oil and gas industry. MANSFIELD — “Questions raised by an eleventh-hour flurry of political ads opposed to the city’s proposed environmental ‘bill of rights’ ballot issue dominated a public elections forum Monday at the Mansfield-Richland County Public Library.
South-side resident Barbara Walter referred to ads — which have appeared in mailboxes and on broadcasts — when she asked city officials whether it was true that Charter Amendment A, which will be decided by the city’s voters Tuesday, could hurt job creation in the city.
‘There has been a lot of pushback from outside money,’ Assistant Law Director Christopher Brown said. ‘I think a lot of this outside money hasn’t read the charter amendment very closely, and they think it’s an outright ban. This is just an opportunity for a local voice to be heard.’
The environmental bill of rights would require companies seeking to drill and operate injection wells for fracking waste in Mansfield to obtain written consent from city council. Law Director John Spon sought the charter amendment after a Texas company obtained state permits to build two injection wells for disposal of fracking waste on land in Mansfield’s industrial park.”
— Linda Martz, Mansfield News Journal
link to article
AKRON — “A Lakewood senator and a Youngstown state representative have partnered to introduce bills into the Ohio General Assembly that would revise the state’s oil and gas standards.
Senate Bill 379, sponsored by Sen. Michael Skindell, and House Bill 596, led by Rep. Robert Hagan, would amend the requirements for disclosure of chemical information to medical professionals, oil and gas permit applications and oil and gas well completion records.
The bills also would charge an owner with reporting all chemicals brought to a well site.
Skindell and Hagan, both Democrats, have said the proposed changes are rooted in ‘addressing the concerns of many Ohioans regarding the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing by the oil and gas industry.’
— Tiffany L. Parks, Akron Legal News
link to article
 BROADVIEW HTS — “Now a group of dedicated residents is looking to right the wrong and perhaps give the city a leg to stand on when a drilling company comes to the city. This issue, if approved, will create a charter amendment that would establish a community bill of rights that bans most commercial oil and natural gas extraction as well as the storage, transportation or depositing of oil and gas drilling waste products within the city.
…This issue is a small step towards telling the state’s elected officials that there is no place for urban oil and gas drilling. It decreases property values, it creates a potentially unsafe environment for residents and as we have seen in this city and others it divides the community.
For these reasons we feel voters should vote YES on Issue 29.”
— Sun News
link to article
 Bill Baker of Mansfield joins Ohio Citizen Action staff Lynn Rooks, Nathan Rutz, Josh Rowe, Jake Dennis, Sammy Marsh, Jack Toriello, Scarlett Rebman, Rachel Saudek, and Eric Dwyre. Amendment A would prevent oil and gas companies from using Mansfield as a dump for their toxic waste without written permission from Mansfield City Council.
 A flooded wellpad in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, after Tropical Storm Lee in September, 2011. WASHINGTON, DC — “One of the greatest risks at these sites are spills and what is called ‘stormwater runoff.’
Under the Clean Water Act, there is something called the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule which includes requirements for oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response to prevent oil discharges to navigable waters and adjoining shorelines. The rule requires specific facilities to prepare, amend, and implement spill prevention plans. Sounds like a no-brainer. But in Fiscal Year 2011, EPA officials visited 120 sites oil and gas development sites and found 105 were out of compliance– 87.5%. (Note: these do not have to be oil production sites. For example, natural gas pads may have enough fuel for drill rigs stored on site to trigger this requirement.)
Almost every single oil and gas site inspected lacked a mandatory spill prevention plan meant to protect our rivers and streams. This is an unacceptable flouting of our environmental laws.”
— Amy Mail, Natural Resources Defense Counsel
link to article
Meet his top energy adviser: billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm
 Harold Hamm and Gov. Mitt Romney BISMARK, ND — “Tapping the Bakken has already made Hamm one of America’s richest oil barons, and North Dakota now rivals Texas as the top-producing oil state, with an economy hotter than a Houston sidewalk in August. In 2011, tax proceeds were up 44 percent from the year before, prompting a ballot measure that attempted (unsuccessfully) to abolish property taxes. Thousands of new oil jobs have given North Dakota the nation’s lowest unemployment rate (3 percent) and overwhelmed cattle country with an influx of fortune seekers. Ranching hamlets that once had five-minute rush hours now endure endless caravans of exhaust-spewing tanker trucks filled with oil, fracking fluids, and ‘hot loads’ of drilling waste.
… In March, Mitt Romney named Hamm his top energy adviser. Though a largely ceremonial post, the choice signaled that Romney, who had advocated for clean power as governor of Massachusetts, was casting his lot with the oil and gas industry. Barely a month later, Hamm contributed $985,000 to Romney’s super-PAC. Shortly after that, Romney, in a speech in Virginia, extolled Hamm’s tale of hitting ‘that black gold’ as the triumph of the little guy over big government. “This is how the founders envisioned America,” he stressed. ‘They didn’t want to have a country that was guided by a government; instead they wanted to have a country that was driven by free people pursuing their dreams.’
— Josh Harkinson, Mother Jones
link to article
 Avner Vengosh is professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. RALEIGH, NC — “Unfortunately, we may be saving our skies at the expense of our water.
Earlier this month, my research team at Duke University published a peer-reviewed study that found high levels of arsenic, selenium and other toxic contaminants in coal ash residues and wastewater discharges generated by coal-fired plants. We found that these contaminants are getting into the water and sediments of lakes and rivers located downstream from coal ash ponds across North Carolina.
It turns out the EPA-required air pollution scrubbers and other contaminant-trapping technologies used at many power plants, such as fabric-filter baghouses, are keeping many toxic contaminants out of our air, which is good. But the contaminants don’t just disappear. They remain, trapped but largely untreated, in concentrated solid form as coal ash or in liquid form as scrubber wastewater and ash-transport slurries. And they’re accumulating in the lakes and rivers into which the plants directly discharge these wastes.”
— Avner Vengosh, Op-Ed, The News Observer
link to letter
 DuPont Co. will have to fund up to $235 million to help provide early detection of diseases linked to exposure to C8 from the company’s nearby Washington Works plant. CHARLESTON, WV — “A panel investigating the potential dangers of C8 has concluded that exposure is probably linked to high cholesterol in humans, adding to the list of health impacts from the DuPont Co. chemical.
The C8 Science Panel’s latest finding adds to the conclusions of the group, which had previously reported a ‘probable link’ between C8 exposure and five other diseases: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and dangerous high blood pressure among pregnant women.
The findings, expected to be released today during a press conference outside Parkersburg, are the latest results from a six-year study of the DuPont chemical.”
— Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette
link to article
 Roxanne Groff, Athens County Fracking Action Network ATHENS — “A geologist working for the state, Tom Tomastik, responded to one citizen who expressed concern about the lack of a hearing by writing and explaining the state’s process. (His letter was quoted in the Athens County Fracking Action Network news release about this Tuesday’s meeting with the county commissioners.)
‘This means if there is an objection based upon health and safety, the chief evaluates the objection,’ Tomastik wrote the citizen. ‘If the chief determines that additional testing or evaluations can address the relevant health and safety objections, then those provisions and conditions to a permit will be attached. This means that there is no longer any ‘relevant’ objection to health and safety as it has been addressed by terms and conditions to a permit. No public hearing is required.’
The ACFAN said that Tomastik seems to be making a leap from the idea that concerns can be addressed with ‘terms and conditions’ to a conclusion that there’s no longer any relevant objection. They questioned whether the chief has even read the objections, let along evaluated their legitimacy.”
— The Athens News
link to article
 Mardy Townsend, of Ashtabula, speaks during an anti-fracking rally at Price Park in North Canton. CANTON — “Environmental activists don’t agree that the road is open yet.
‘Our board’s position is that fracking should be banned,’ said Nathan Rutz, campaign organizer for Ohio Citizen Action, a statewide advocacy group based in Cleveland that is organizing protest meetings against shale development. ‘It is intrinsically dangerous because of potential contamination of groundwater from the entire process, from fracking to the disposal of wastewater,’ he said.
‘Everybody wants this to be done as carefully as possible,’ said David Kaminski, director of education and government affairs at the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce. The state needs to show that it can scale up its well inspection operations in pace with drilling, but the former journalist said he believes that will happen, adding, ‘In 33 years of newspapering, I can’t remember a story where a water system was contaminated by mineral drilling.’”
— Peter Behr, EnergyWire
link to article
 Ohio State Sen. Troy Balderson CLEVELAND — On October 25, the two candidates for Ohio Senate in the District 20 race, Sen. Troy Balderson and Teresa McGraner Scarmack, submitted their pre-general campaign finance filing. The records cover the period from April 6 to October 17, 2012. Findings:
1. Oil and gas interest contributions are pouring into Senate District 20 to help Balderson, who voted for Gov. Kasich’s hydraulic fracturing bill, S.B. 315, last spring.
2. The amount of oil and gas money is likely understated because the way Sen. Balderson has handled and reported his contributions has effectively obscured the original source of most of the money.
3. Oil and gas interests have contributed nothing to Teresa McGraner Scarmack.
On October 8, our analysis concluded, “If fracking leaves a mark on the elections, it most will likely be in Ohio Senate District 20.” Yesterday’s pre-general campaign finance filings confirm this, or at least show that oil and gas interests agree with us.
— Paul Ryder, Assistant Director, Ohio Citizen Action, memo to Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director.
link to full memo
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Letters supporting the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act 7,672 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and made personal phone calls urging state legislators to support the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act as of May 14, 2013.
Ohio coal-fired power plants
Resources on proposed Cleveland incinerator
AEP’s Muskingum River Power Plant
Letters to American Electric Power 989 neighbors have sent handwritten letters urging AEP to retire its Muskingum River coal plant as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Duke Energy 2,307 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and telewires urging Duke Energy to retire Miami Fort Unit 6 and Beckjord coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Kokosing Asphalt 8,709 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Kokosing Asphalt to be a good neighbor as of February 25, 2011.
Letters to Rumpke 9,205 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging Rumpke to be a good neighbor as of April 15, 2011.
Letters to FirstEnergy 3,914 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging FirstEnergy to retire their four Lake Erie coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Mountaintop removal coal mining
Letters to Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman 6,615 members have sent handwritten letters and petitions to Senator Brown urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
3,751 members have petitioned Senator Portman urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
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