More than 8,000 acres at Egypt Valley Wildlife Area and more than 500 acres at Salt Fork State Park were approved to be fracked during Friday’s Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting, which lasted less than 20 minutes.
Four different bid selections were approved for parts of Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Belmont County — 3,846 acres, 2,792 acres, 849 acres, and 746 acres.
One bid selection was approved for 513 acres in Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County.
The leases will be put out to bid next calendar quarter.
Advocates for protecting Ohio’s public lands from exploitation and degradation slammed the approvals.
“The poisonous fruits of fracking will now grow in everyone’s backyard,” Save Ohio Parks said in a statement.
Several people booed and shouted in opposition when the commissions voted to approve the bids.
“We do consider all of the factors required by the statute and public comments are certainly one of them,” commission Chair Theresa White said when asked how much public comments are taken into consideration.
Fracking is the process of injecting liquid into the ground at a high pressure to extract oil or gas.
Texas-based EOG Resources Incorporated was chosen to frack about 3.6 acres in Valley Run Wildlife Area in Carroll County and less than an acre of the possible right-of-way along Ohio State Route 151 in Harrison County.
EOG Resources was the only bidder for both. The commission is required to pick the “highest and best bid” per Ohio law.
The lease bonus is $12,754 for Valley Run Wildlife Area and includes a 12.5% royalty, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The lease bonus is $2,446.50 for the land in Harrison County and includes a 12.5% royalty, according to ODNR.
Less than an acre of land in the right-of-way along Ohio State Route 513 in Guernsey County was also approved for fracking.
A bid selection containing 18.71 acres of the possible right-of-way along Ohio State Route 513 in Guernsey County was denied.
“Part of the nomination had parcels that included federal highways, and based on the coordination between the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, part of their requirements are that the federal government must give permission in writing and give that express written consent,” White said.
ODOT did not get federal approval, so White said the commission did not think they had the authority to move forward with leasing the land.
There were approximately 2,000 incidents associated with oil and gas wells in Ohio from 2015-2023, according to FracTracker Alliance — a nonprofit that collects data on fracking pipelines.
There’s evidence that shows increased exposure to fracking impacts health, in particular children’s health, including low birth weight, preterm births, congenital anomalies, and asthma, according to Yale School of Medicine.
“There will be more early childhood cancers and respiratory illnesses from increased natural gas methane emissions,” Save Ohio Parks said in a statement.
“Our freshwater lakes, rivers and creeks, even groundwater and soils will be even more depleted and contaminated from toxic, radioactive gas and oil wastewater brine.”
Before Friday’s meeting, about 20 people gathered outside the Ohio Department of Public Safety building to protest fracking.
“Parks weren’t meant to be silent and vacant industrial zones,” said Mary Huck, board member of Save Ohio Parks.
“Without the connection with nature our wild spaces give, we become less human. … Mental health suffers in a society without natural green spaces, as does physical health and safety of living in peace.”
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.