A group called Washington County for Safe Drinking recently filed an ethics complaint with the Ohio Joint Legislative Ethics Committee against Republican Ohio state Sen. Brian Chavez over alleged oil and gas conflicts.
The ethics complaint argues Chavez’s alleged conflicts of interest and voting record as the Ohio Senate Energy Committee Chair shows he has prioritized personal financial gain.
“The complaint alleges Chavez’s conflicts of interest regarding undisclosed business entities and fast-tracking legislation that could benefit these interests,” the complaint said. “When public officials with financial ties to an industry shape laws that directly benefit that industry, it undermines public trust across the entire state.”
Buckeye Environmental Network, Save Ohio Parks, and FaCT Ohio also signed the letter, which calls for an investigation.
“This is a fundamental crisis of public trust that impacts every Ohioan’s right to safe drinking water and ethical governance,” Washington County for Safe Drinking Water spokesperson Hillary Royster said in a statement.
Ohio law prohibits Joint Legislative Ethics Committee members or staff from confirming or denying receiving a complaint or allegation, said Ohio Joint Legislative Ethics Committee Executive Director Tony Bledsoe.
“Therefore, I am unable to provide any further comment,” Bledsoe said in an email.
When the Capital Journal reached out to Chavez for comment, John Fortney, spokesperson for the Ohio Senate Republicans, responded.
“These radicalized local groups could care less about ethics, much less safe drinking water,” Fortney said in an email. “This is another baseless, desperate, and hollow attack funded by billionaire California special interests with the single goal of killing the oil and gas industry in Ohio.”
Chavez — who was appointed to the Ohio Senate in December 2023 after Frank Hoagland retired and was elected to a four-year term in 2024 — has many connections to Ohio’s oil and gas industry.
Before becoming a senator, he was a member of the Oil and Gas Commission, served as a trustee for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, was on the board of the Southeast Ohio Oil and Gas Association, and managed and owned Reno Oil & Gas, Inc.
Chavez resigned as vice president of Heinrich Enterprises, Inc — his wife’s family’s oil and gas business — in 2024, according to Chavez’s 2024 Financial Disclosure Statement.
He was CEO of DeepRock Disposal Solutions, a wastewater disposal company that uses deep-well injections, until 2024. Chavez, however, was listed as a DeepRock Disposal Solutions manager in its 2025 annual report filed with the state of West Virginia, according to the complaint.
Chavez “does not disclose ownership in DeepRock Disposal Solutions LLC in either his 2023 or his 2024 financial disclosure forms,” according to the complaint.
“Signing documents as the CEO of DeepRock Disposal Solutions LLC, but failing to disclose employment, or any other interest, with respect to that specific company at any point in the past, is not a standard that the Ohio Ethics Commission should want to set,” the complaint says.
DeepRock is currently facing litigation in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Brine injected into a DeepRock well migrated underground and erupted to the surface in an abandoned well in Noble County in 2021. DeepRock did not have to pay for clean-up and the state spent about $1.3 million to plug the leak and clean it up.
Chavez did not disclose his or his immediate family members’ interest in Heinrich Property LLC, Horizon Partners Investments LLC, Funds Protection Investment LLC, Condevco Operating LLC, and DeepRock Disposal Solutions LLC, according to the complaint.
“Failing to list a single LLC for which you have an interest on a state financial disclosure form is a problem,” the complaint says. “Failing to fully disclose interests in as many as five or even six LLCs … is more than a simple oversight.”
The ethics complaint also alleges Chavez fast-tracked a bill that could financial benefit him.
Ohio Senate Bill 219 would change the state’s orphan well program by proposing a dedicated fund for plugging orphan wells and streamlining notice requirements before work would begin. An orphan well is an abandoned oil and gas well that has no owner, meaning no one is able to properly plug the well.
It also makes it easier for drillers to get expedited review of projects, limits liability after a well owner sells one of their wells and gets rid of a requirement for drillers to make road-use agreements with local governments.
The bill was introduced in June by Republican Senator Al Landis, passed the Senate in November, and is now in the Ohio House.
Chavez Well Service has bid on five orphan well contracts since Chavez became a senator and won one contract worth more that $200,000, according to the complaint.
“Should Senate Bill 219 become law, the injection well industry will be set to make more money with less oversight,” according to the complaint. “Consequently, Senator Chavez, with both his disclosed and undisclosed interests, could stand to profit from the provisions in Senate Bill 219.”
Ohio’s Orphan Well Program has plugged approximately 2,300 abandoned wells since its inception in 1977.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.