Oil & Gas Waste

Starting around 2011, BEN’s biggest fight has been against the spread of the toxic and radioactive byproduct of the oil and gas industry—oilfield brine. For every barrel of crude oil or natural gas produced, seven to ten barrels of oilfield brine which contains extreme levels of radioactivity and toxicity due to carcinogens such as radium, heavy metals, forever chemical, and chlorides. There are multiple avenues of migration for oilfield brine.

Road Spreading is a practice where townships and counties will spread oilfield brine from conventional oil wells on roadways in an attempt to deice and suppress dust on their roadways. This practice was legalized in 1985 before the State of Ohio had adequately studied oilfield brine. Fast forward to a study completed by Ohio Department of Natural Resources in 2019, all but one well studied had levels of radium too high to discharge into the environment according to Ohio’s Administrative Code. We are working with local elected officials and the State Legislature to make common sense policy changes to reflect this new finding.

Injection wells is a practice that gets rid of oilfield brine by injecting it into the earth at high pressures. ODNR manages Ohio’s injection well program which makes it much easier to obtain a permit for an injection well than other states. Ohio has 250+ injection wells, Pennsylvania has 12, and West Virginia has 50+, Ohio has 250+. For this reason, Ohio receives much of the waste from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York. One major problem with injection wells in Ohio is that our formations are “holier than swiss cheese” (Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice). Ohio has had multiple Class II Injection Wells suspended as a result of leaking waste into oil production wells and possibly drinking water wells.