Gas companies pitch fracking state park and two wildlife areas under new law

May 26, 2023

Hosak's Cave at Ohio's Salt Fork State Park near Cambridge. (Susan Glaser/Cleveland.com)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fossil fuel companies formally asked the state to open thousands of acres beneath one state park and two wildlife reserves for oil and gas exploration, new filings posted Monday show.

While state law shields their identities from disclosure, public notices on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website show the drillers’ interest in broad swaths of Salt Fork State Park, Zepernick Wildlife Area and Valley Run Wildlife Area, all in eastern Ohio.

These mark the industry's first steps toward fracking state lands since a recent state law passed by Republicans essentially force-started a dormant system created in 2011 to allow for drilling under state parks.

The eight notices, all filed on the first day of the new legal system's existence last week, trigger a 45-day public comment period. Then the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, where two of four members are recommended by the industry, decides whether to accept the "nominations" to open the land to drilling and start a public bidding process.

Gov. Mike DeWine said when he signed the recent state lands drilling expansion into law that he wouldn't allow for any surface interruptions in state parks. Companies can drill vertically thousands of feet underground on plots adjacent to state parks and pivot 90 degrees to reach underneath them. From the well bore, they can use the process of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" to pump a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to free the oil and gas from shale.

Three of eight nominations seek rights for thousands of acres at Salt Fork in Guernsey County – 21,000 acres of land that were previously the subject of a rejected, $2 billion leasing offer from Encino Energy.

A screenshot of a nomination submitted to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to free land beneath Salt Fork State Park for oil and gas exploration.

Three other nominations seek 302 acres of the Valley Run Wildlife Area, a 304-acre expanse of rolling foothills in Carroll County. According to its website, the park is largely undeveloped and known for hunting, hiking and birding.

Another seeks about 66 acres of Zepernick Wildlife Area, a 521 acre preserved space in Columbiana County.

The state will release information regarding who submitted the bids or how much money they offered only after the OGLM approves a nomination and selects the best offer.

According to Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Andy Chow, the state received a ninth application to drill under state lands on Monday that has not yet been posted online.

Environmentalist and conservation organizations opposed the idea, warning of irreversible aesthetic and environmental damage to untouched land in the state. A lawsuit challenging the legislative maneuvers to pass the recent drilling expansion, which include stuffing the idea into an unrelated bill in the closing days of the two-year General Assembly, is ongoing in Franklin County.

Jake Zuckerman covers politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

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