Ohio public lands are under attack, and right now two wildlife areas – Valley Run in Carroll County and Zepernick in Columbiana County – are squarely in the crosshairs.

Ohio has protected 269 wildlife areas for the purpose of preserving a place for wildlife to live, as well as for Ohioans to hike, camp, birdwatch, boat, fish, hunt, and other recreational activities.

The oil and gas industry has submitted three applications, referred to as “lease nominations,” to construct four well pads to frack the entire 302 acres of Valley Run Wildlife Area and one nomination for a well pad to frack 66 acres under the 520-acre Zepernick Wildlife Area.

Studies show air and water pollution caused by fracking, along with intense artificial lighting, noise, truck traffic and fracking infrastructure will negatively impact these two wildlife areas.

Valley Run Wildlife Area, named for the Valley Run stream that flows through it, is immediately adjacent to the large Harrison Hills Association Campground, where hundreds of people live for most or all of the year. One of the proposed well pads is barely 1/10th of a mile from the wildlife area, and some of the parcels proposed to be fracked are in the campground.

Zepernick Wildlife Area is home to Zepernick Lake (shown above) and Ruff Pond that make it a popular boating and fishing destination. These bodies of water are fed by Conser Run. All of them would be destroyed by removing large quantities of water for fracking and by any fracking leaks or runoff.

TAKE ACTION: Enter your information to the right to tell the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission to DENY lease nominations in Valley Run and Zepernick Wildlife Areas.

Eastern Ohio has long been a sacrifice zone to the fossil fuel industry. Coal, oil, and gas have been removed and pipelines have been shoved through. These poor communities don’t see the income from fossil fuel extraction, which goes to the already wealthy corporate owners. But they do see the desolation left behind. They deserve jobs of the future, not pollution of the past.

If the state approves the nominations to frack Valley Run and Zepernick Wildlife Areas, the oil and gas industry – we don’t know which company because state law shields that information from us – will put four frack pads around Valley Run and one near Zepernick. Each pad will be 4 to 25 acres in size with drilling rigs up to 125 feet high.

Those rigs will use 4 million to 6 million gallons of fresh water per frack well – and each pad will hold multiple frack wells. This water will be mixed with sand and a variety of toxic chemicals that we are not allowed to know about thanks to the “Halliburton loophole” – the fracking industry’s exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act and other environmental safety laws.

Truck traffic – 2,300 to 4,000 truck trips per well – will bring in construction machinery, sand, toxic chemicals, and other equipment, as well as cart away the millions of gallons of toxic frack wastewater that can never enter the water cycle again and must be injected deep underground.

TAKE ACTION: Enter your information to the right to tell the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission to DENY lease nominations in Valley Run and Zepernick Wildlife Areas

Where will all this water come from? The likely answer is Valley Run itself, which flows through Valley Run Wildlife Area, and Zepernick Lake, Ruff Pond, or Conser Run in Zepernick Wildlife Area. This amount of water withdrawal will ruin these beautiful streams and bodies of water.

How will all this truck traffic get to and from these frack well pads? Valley Run is accessible only through a few narrow, hilly county roads such as Bacon Road. Zepernick is accessible from State Route 172, another two-lane hilly road. These areas are not designed for heavy industry.

Fracking is incompatible with visitor experience at Valley Run, Zepernick, or any wildlife area:

• Fracking is extremely loud – chasing away the wildlife who call the area home.
• Fracking injects millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground – including PFAS – and the wastewater that comes back up is radioactive.
• Frack pads are fully lit at night – disturbing any campers trying to sleep.
• Frack wells flare methane – polluting air all around and in the wildlife area.

TAKE ACTION: Enter your information to the right to tell the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission to DENY lease nominations in Valley Run and Zepernick Wildlife Areas

We must act now! The decision makers on whether to frack Valley Run and Zepernick Wildlife Areas are the four members of the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission. They have the power to approve or deny these nominations, and they are taking public comments now.

Please file a public comment to demanding proof that there will be:

• NO environmental impact to the wildlife area
• NO adverse geological impact
• NO impact to visitors to the wildlife area
• NO impact to wildlife or plant species
• NO surface use, such as well pads, roads, pipelines, water lines, and compressors.
• NO use of any water from any nearby lakes or streams

We have a suggested letter you can use to file a public comment, but you can personalize it to add your own story about why Ohio’s protected wildlife areas matter to you. When you press Send, your comment will go directly to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission.

Don’t delay – we are up against a powerful industry and need thousands of public comments. Please share this action alert with your friends! The deadline is July 20.

Thank you for caring about Ohio’s wildlife areas and other public lands.