Time for full transparency on Ohio's fracking waste practices: editorial
In February of last year, state Rep. Sean Patrick Brennan of Parma introduced a bill to require owners of all hydraulic fracturing (fracking) oil and gas well operations drilling in state parks “to disclose the chemical components of the materials used in the drilling operation.”
Brennan correctly notes that this is information that neighbors relying on well water, the first responders to spills and to other drilling accidents and the state all need to know.
Yet the only activity on Ohio House Bill 71 since being introduced on Feb. 10, 2025, and referred to the Ohio House Natural Resources Committee two days later, has been a single hearing more than a year ago -- on April 9, 2025 -- with a single person testifying, Rep. Brennan.
No sense of urgency at the Statehouse to protect Ohio’s precious water and groundwater resources and the officials who may be first on the scene of accidents.
No sense of urgency to protect Ohio and Ohioans from the out-of-state frackers that use Ohio to dispose of their fracking waste, no disclosures required.
No sense of urgency to make sure the state is prepared for toxic spills and other accidents and does all it can to protect the state’s irreplaceable natural resources and vulnerable residents.
As we editorialized in December, “Ohio urgently needs a toughened, more transparent fracking-waste permit process” -- a deficiency our editorial board blamed on “a feckless General Assembly that seems determined to be at the beck and call of a relentless gas-and-oil lobby.”
No wonder Brennan’s HB 71 is going exactly nowhere fast, despite the clear need for transparency on this issue.
And now the former teacher and Parma City Council member, who is seeking a third Ohio House term, has become focused on another major transparency gap in Ohio’s fracking oversight: The apparent lack of prompt reporting and of adequate enforcement of state oil and gas fracking safety requirements highlighted in a 2015 spill in Trumbull County.
The spill -- apparently from fracking waste tanks owned by Kleese Development Associates, which operates five fracking-waste injection wells in Vienna Township -- reportedly turned a nearby waterway orange and killed scores of fish, along with at least one turtle and a muskrat. Nearby residents had to drink bottled water for a week, according to a recent report by the Buckeye Environmental Network (BEN).
But the BEN report also reported a four-day delay in reporting the incident, which happened shortly before Easter 2015, and other delays in taking actions to stop the spill. “Even though the spill was discovered on March 28th, 2015, ODNR (the Ohio Department of Natural Resources) was not notified until April 2, 2015,” BEN found.
“For at least 4 days these dangerous contaminants spilled onto the ground and into the water near the injection facility. This delay meant the contamination continued to spread without immediate state response,” the April 8, 2026, report asserts.
ODNR did bring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into the investigation, according to the Buckeye Environmental Network report, and a special agent was assigned to investigate -- finding actionable violations, according to the report.
Yet what happened next?
Was Kleese fined or otherwise held to account? The record is unclear. And can ODNR show that a proper liner had been “installed for the containment area underneath the concrete” to contain any spills? Another unanswered question.
Earlier this month, Brennan waded into this morass, asking for a meeting with ODNR to try to clear up some of the unanswered questions about the 2015 spill. Yesterday, he told our editorial board he sees important transparency issues in this matter, as well.
The ODNR meeting that was to have happened yesterday didn’t go forward because of a scheduling error, but Brennan told us it will be rescheduled. Good.
As our December editorial on Ohio’s deficient fracking-waste oversight concluded, “The first priority of the DeWine administration, and of the General Assembly, should be to protect Ohio’s environment -- not risk it to benefit profiteers.”
Effective oversight starts and ends with full transparency about all aspects of Ohio’s fracking operations, along with functional and effective regulatory oversight and enforcement.
About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.