The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released in November, pointed out that in order to keep climate impacts from worsening, we must stop any new fossil-fuel projects. In September, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “Humanity has opened the gates of hell, horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods. Sweltering temperatures spawning disease. And thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage.”

Even though Pope Francis has expressed his concerns over climate change in his 2015 encyclical, and “some 354 Catholic institutions across more than 50 countries have divested of fossil fuels,” U.S. Catholic bishops are ignoring his call for action. They continue to invest in fossil fuel projects and remain silent about climate change.

While other countries pushed for a phase-out of new fossil fuel projects at the COP 28 summit, the United States is “poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before this year, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded.” The U.S. fossil fuel industry is gonna party until the water is lapping at their front doors. Why, in spite of all the scientific evidence, has the U.S. put on its rose-colored glasses and ignored the destruction from fossil-fuel-fueled climate change?

One word: Greed.

Exxon Mobil announced in October that profits for the third quarter would be between $9 billion and $11 billion. Make no mistake, money can influence some people to do just about anything.

On Nov. 15, Ryan Richardson, Stephen Buehrer, Matthew Warnock, Michael Wise, and Jim McGregor –members of the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission — paved the way for fracking Ohio’s state parks. During that meeting, the commission approved fracking leases for Salt Fork State Park, Zepernick Wildlife Area and Valley Run Wildlife Area, even though more than 100 Ohioans present at the meeting expressed their outrage.

No doubt, the OGLMC was influenced by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s March 1 presentation which focused on how much money could be made by fracking lands overlying the Utica and Marcellus shale. Like the OGLMC, the MWCD’s main concern is making as much money as quickly as possible from fracking. In fact, “no one has benefited financially as much as the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District; Ohio’s No. 1 beneficiary of drilling.”

Recently, the MWCD had Cleveland State University’s Energy and Policy Center conduct a non-peer reviewed study (see the 26-page report, “Economic Impact of the Muskingum Conservancy District on the Regional Economy, 2014- 2022.”) While this report tries to convince us that the MWCD has brought economic prosperity to the region, evidence shows a decline in population and local incomes. The 2020 census showed the “largest population drop among counties in Ohio occurred in Harrison County, which dropped 8.7 percent to 14,483.”

A Feb. 12, 2021, study published by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a nonprofit research center, found that “jobs, personal income and population all declined between 2008 and 2019 in the 22 Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia counties that produce 90 percent of Appalachia’s natural gas.”

This included the MWCD counties of Belmont, Carroll, Guernsey, Harrison and Noble, which saw a net job loss of more than 8 percent and a population loss of more than 5 percent.

Additionally, the MWCD report was only concerned with economic impacts and did not include the health and environmental impacts from this development. The development being selling water for fracking, selling leases for fracking, and receiving royalties from fracking.

Peer-reviewed studies as well as the citizens living in the 18-county region of the MWCD can provide data as to the impacts associated with fracking. The recently released 637-page report, “Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure, Ninth Edition, Oct. 19,” says, “Our examination uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health directly or without imperiling climate stability upon which human health depends.”

Accident reports obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request to the ODNR illustrate that this industry is anything but safe. Just since 2018, the ODNR data has documented more than 800 accidents considered serious enough to require inspectors, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and hazmat intervention to remediate the sites. In addition, Ohio has one of the most lenient set-backs for a well pad: 150 feet from a property boundary.

More than 100 studies have documented hazardous and carcinogenic chemical compounds in the air around fracking sites. “Evidence shows that compressor stations along natural gas pipelines are sources of air pollutant exposures that contribute to adverse human health outcomes.” Oil and gas wells are the single largest source of human-caused methane gas emissions. Additionally, fracking produces millions of gallons of waste fluids containing heavy metals, salts, and radionuclides, which are injected into Class II injection wells.

MWCD might “shield the well pads from public view” but those of us who live on or near MWCD property experience the negative impacts of fracking every day. We are losing forest acreage to well pads, infrastructure, roads and pipelines. We hear noise pollution and see light pollution from flaring. Our roads are traveled by hundreds of brine, sand and chemical tankers. We are witnessing MWCD’s greed turn our rural landscape into an industrial zone while our property values diminish.

The MWCD is quick to brag about its $40 million dollar deal with Encino Energy or their $6.5 million marina at Tappan Lake, but the environmental damage that will occur to the local environment as the MWCD makes money from fracking is indefensible. They brag about all the economic benefits (see “Analysis shows MWCD plan has $1B impact on area’s economy,” Herald-Star, Nov. 25) they bring to the area, but a drive through the local communities shows no significant economic boom.

Our family used to visit Tappan Park 20 years ago, but what the MWCD calls improvements looks more like an attempt to create a high-end camping resort. The new camping areas, depicted on Page 13 of the report, are now devoid of trees. Today there are only side-by-side concrete pads that will accommodate expensive RVs complete with satellite dishes and air conditioning. This is not camping, it is glamping. This is not the atmosphere that nature-lovers seek. Much of the money gained from fracking will be spent on MWCD infrastructure improvements inside the parks. Most locals will never use these facilities, but they will experience the externalities resulting from fracking.

The definition of a conservancy is “A body concerned with the preservation of nature, specific species, or natural resources.” MWCD is not a conservancy. Real stewards of the environment do not embrace a process that contributes to climate change. They do not look the other way as fracking infrastructure destroys forested ecosystems. They do not ignore the volatile organic air emissions from fracking well pads, compressor stations and pipelines or the millions of gallons of surface water withdrawn for fracking fluids. Real stewards of the environment protect it, nurture it, and value the undisturbed beauty above and beyond any monetary value.

(Pokladnik, a resident of Uhrichsville, holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, master’s and doctorates in environmental studies and is certified in hazardous materials regulations.)