Maybe this fracking thing isn't going so great. The Ohio Beacon Journal reports today on a pair of houses where fracking for natural gas started nearby and the water went seriously bad:
The levels of explosivity were 34.7 and 47.4 percent at wells at the two houses, the agency said. Hazardous conditions exist when levels surpass 10 percent, the health agency said.The gas levels in and around the Mangans’ house have been so high that firefighters were called several times. Columbia Gas shut off service for a time because of the likelihood of an explosion.“We are constantly in danger,” Mangan said. “Our house was a bomb waiting to go off.”
Contradicting the assurances from Ohio regulators, an agency of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the fracking and the explosive drinking wells are related. Ohio lawmakers are now considering a couple of bills on fracking, one that would provide new regulations and another that would place a temporary moratorium on it until the EPA finishes its study on fracking and drinking water.
Arguing against fracking has been a lonely go for activists in hard-times Ohio, but they do seem to be getting somewhere. Late last year, Governor Kasich put a hold on a Youngstown fracking well after a string of earthquakes in town. See the Al Jazeera report on that, just below.