Eco-news in brief 7-31
By CG News Editor April Jaynes
Local deep-shale drillers plan for two more wells
Local developers and businessmen James Brent Hayes and Randy Wolfe of R. Wolfe Oil & Gas are planning to seek permits for two more deep-shale wells in the Athens area. The developers confirmed last Friday that there were indications of gas present in the shale at Hayes’ current vertical well site in Rome Township. They have yet to file for permits for the additional wells and the core samples they obtained at the current site are in the process of being analyzed to determine how much gas and/or oil is in the shale. Hayes and Wolfe are planning on putting one of the additional wells about 1,500 feet away from the current one and another at a site near the border of Athens and Morgan counties.
Ohio groups sign recent Natural Resources Defense Council letter to the Bureau of Land Management
On July 17 the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) authored a letter to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Eastern States Office Director, Dr. John Lyon, urging the bureau to comply with federal law that requires a site-specific Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prior to leasing land for oil and gas extraction. Out of the 15 regional and national environmental organizations that signed the letter four Ohio groups signed: The Athens Conservancy, Athens County Fracking Action Network, Buckeye Forest Council and Sierra Club, Ohio Chapter. The letter explains problems with relying solely on an EIS versus the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements in conjunction with an EIS and calls for change in BLM leasing practices.
New study says thunderstorms may deplete ozone
A recent study published last Friday in Science ties frequent summer thunderstorms to climate change by observing lower stratosphere conditions. Atmospheric researchers conclude that high concentrations of water vapor combined with harmful man-made chemicals encourage ozone depletion. Thunderstorms provide the excessive water vapor concentration in the stratosphere. Dr. James Anderson, a Harvard atmospheric scientist and leader of the study, says if mid-latitude storms increase in frequency and intensity as some scientists predict, ozone destruction could become irreversible.
