By: Spencer Hunt
The Columbus Dispatch - February 19, 2013 12:25 PM
Protesters shut down a business this morning that wants to use Ohio River barges to take "fracking" wastes from Pennsylvania.
Members of a group called Appalachia Resist descended onGreenHunter Water's storage
facility and terminal in New Matamoras this morning. The Grapevine,
Texas-based company is taking truckload deliveries of the liquid wastes,
which bubble out of shale wells along with oil and gas, while it
awaits a Coast Guard decision that could allow it to uses barges.
The
wastes, a mixture of fracking chemicals, naturally occuring metals,
radium and high concentrations of salt are sent to Ohio disposal wells
where they are injected underground. The fracking process pumps millions
of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to shatter shale
and release trapped oil and gas.
A
press release from the group claimed more than 100 protesters. It said
the group is concerned that a barge collision or mishap would release
toxic wastes into the Ohio River.
GreenHunter
officials have said barge traffic is safe and that Ohio River barges
routinely transport substances more hazardous than fracking wastes.
***
BREAKING: Ohio Residents Shut Down Fracking Waste Storage Facility
Update 3:00 p.m.: “I
am here [from the Tar Sands Blockade in Texas] in solidarity with
fracking resistance. We must all understand the connection between
energy extraction and waste disposal. Fracking and tar sands oil
extraction both show the extreme disregard the energy industry has for
humanity and our natural resources.” — Matt Almonte of the Greenhunter
10.Donate now!
Update 2:30: Nate
has descended from the monopod under the threat of a potentially
life-threatening extraction process, as well as the possibility of
additional arrests of his supporters.Support brave action for environmental and climate justice — donate now!
Update 2:00: “Today
is an unprecedented display of unity in the growing international
movement against extractive industry. I came to Ohio to show solidarity
with our neighbors fighting for their water and air. No fracking, no tar
sands, no compromise!” – One of 10 arrested activists. Donate now!
Update 1:50: At
least ten activists arrested. Cops are discussing using tow trucks to
bring down the monopod. Any efforts to tamper with the anchor lines
could endanger Nate’s life. Nate is still holding strong. Support Appalachia Resist! and allies standing up to the poisonous and exploitative gas industry — donate now!
Update 1:25 p.m.: Police
picking more protesters off of friendly neighbor’s property. At least
two additional arrests and one additional detention. But the frack waste
storage site is still shut down!!! Donations needed.
Update 1:13 p.m.: Police
arrested one person for stepping across the friendly neighbor’s
property line. Police pulled a second protester across the line and
placed them under arrest. A sheriff just pinned a third protester to the
ground and placed them under arrest, again on private property. Two of
the arrested protesters have been told that they will be charged with
breaking and entering, a fifth degree felony. Please support those who
have put their bodies on the line today with a generous donation to the Appalachia Resist action and bail fund.
Update 1:00 p.m.: Police
ordered activists away from their location across the street from the
monopod, leaving Nate by himself on the site. Protesters are now
gathering in the yard of a supportive neighbor who invited them onto her
property. Police have ordered protesters further back on the neighbor’s
property, forcing protesters to maintain a distance of thirty feet from
the center road line. Protesters have moved all vehicles into a private
parking lot under threat of being towed; the owner of the lot has said
they are welcome to stay until Thursday.
Update 12:42 p.m.: Nate ascending the monopod. Appalachia Resist! 
Update 12:40 p.m.: No Frack Waste By Truck, No Frack Waste By Boat… 
Update 12:35 p.m.: Solidarity action at Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources in Columbus! 
Update 12:30 p.m.: Police
have broken the locks on the front gates of the facility and are
transporting the three detained activists offsite. Nate has dropped a
banner from the monopod reading: “Greenhunter: Helping the Rich Get
Richer and the Poor Get Sicker.”
Update 12:15 p.m.: Police
attempting to keep media away from protesters and have threatened to
tow activists’ vehicles from public parking lot half a mile away from
the frack waste storage facility. Police warning activists that tow
trucks will arrive in 45 minutes.
Update 11:55 a.m.: Monopod
is going strong, frack trucks remain unable to enter the site! Three
activists still being detained inside the facility. Thirteen cop cars
now on the scene.
Update 11:50 a.m.: One
protester has spoken with a neighbor who is angry about all the toxic
chemicals on her street and very happy that protesters are on the site.
She has invited protesters into her yard.
Update 11:47 a.m.: About six activists sitting outside gate on property refusing to move.
Update 11:45 a.m.: Police liaison ordered across street under threat of arrest.
Update 11:40 a.m: Three anti-frack activists in handcuffs onsite.
UPDATE: 11:38 a.m.:
UPDATE: 11:35 a.m.: The front gate has been opened. Cops are chasing activists from the site.
UPDATE: 11:33 a.m.: Six
police vehicles on scene. Workers have removed banners and police are
ordering protesters to leave the property. Two of the activists
remaining inside the facility have been detained by police. Others are
standing in front of the main gate which has been locked by activists.
One fire truck is now on the scene surveying the monopod. The vice
president of Greenhunter is onsite meeting with the sheriffs and the
police.
UPDATE: 11:20 a.m.: Activists
unfurled a banner on one of the frack waste trucks reading: “No Frack
Waste By Truck, No Frack Waste By Boat, No Greenhunter Waste Down Ohio’s
Throat.” #DrSeuss
UPDATE: 11:10 a.m.: Workers
have come out of their trucks. The monopod is occupied with direct
support at the bottom. Two police cars are on the scene.
Matamoros,
OH, 10:00 am. Good morning! Along with Earth First! and other
environmental groups, we have stopped truck traffic at the Greenhunter
fracking waste facility in Matamoros, Washington County, along the Ohio
River.
Nate Ebert, a 33-year-old Athens County resident and member of Appalachia Resist!,
ascended a 30 foot pole anchored to a brine truck in the process of
unloading frack waste, preventing all trucks carrying frack waste from
entering the site.
Over
one hundred supporters gathered at the facility, protesting
Greenhunter’s plans to increase capacity for toxic frack waste dumping
in Ohio. Greenhunter is seeking approval from the Coast Guard to ship
frack waste across the Ohio River via barge at a rate of up to half a
million gallons per load. The Ohio River is a drinking source for more
than 5 million people, including residents of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
Test results from multiple frack waste samples reveal high levels of benzene, toluene, arsenic, barium, and radium, among other carcinogenic and radioactive chemicals.
“Our
governor, legislature, and regulatory agencies have all failed in their
obligation to protect Ohioans from the predatory gas industry,” said
Ebert. “Greenhunter wants to use our water sources as dumping grounds
for their toxic, radioactive waste. We are here to send a message that
the people of Ohio and Appalachia will not sit idly by and watch our
homes be turned into a sacrifice zone!”
Frack waste dumping has generated resistance across Ohio, including direct actions disrupting waste disposal operations from Youngstown to Athens County. The waste is injected underground into over 170 wells statewide, contaminating water and causing numerous earthquakes across
the state from Marietta to Ashtabula, most notably a 4.0 earthquake in
Youngstown. Surface spills are commonplace across Ohio, including the
recently uncovered intentional dumping of an estimated hundreds of thousands of gallons of frack waste into the Mahoning River.
“Fracking chemicals and cancer go hand in hand,” said Teresa Mills of the Buckeye Forest Council,
a grassroots Ohio organization seeking a ban on frack waste injection.
“Greenhunter plans to recklessly endanger the drinking water of millions
of residents of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and beyond. How many kids have to
get cancer before we decide that saturating Ohio’s rivers and aquifers
with toxic waste is not worth it? We need a ban on injection wells to
protect our air, our water, and our children.”
Other groups participating in Tuesday’s action include Tar Sands Blockade, Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS), a coalition of indigenous leaders including representatives from No Line 9 and the Unis’tot’en Camp, Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, and Earth First! chapters
from across the country. Tuesday’s action is the latest in a series of
escalated acts of resistance to destructive extractive industries. On
Monday, Pennsylvanians disrupted construction of
the Tennessee Gas Pipeline in the Delaware State Forest. In January,
Navajo residents from Black Mesa, Arizona joined with Appalachians to protest strip mining at the headquarters of Peabody Energy.
International resistance to tar sands mining has continued to escalate
from the Tar Sands Blockade in Texas and Great Plains Tar Sands
Resistance in Oklahoma, to the Unist’ot’en Camp in Wet’suwet’en
Territories.
“I
am here because the struggle against frack waste dumping in Ohio is the
same as our resistance to the blasting of the mountains in my backyard
in West Virginia,” said Kim Ellis of RAMPS. “Until we put a stop to
poisonous and exploitative extractive practices everywhere, we will
continue to fight.”
Keep fighting! Stand against fracking and injection wells! We don’t need to accept this abuse of our land, air, and water!
No comments:
Post a Comment