Letter: Fracking is Coming to Portage County

To the Editor:

As a retired property owner in Portage County, I dread the arrival of the oil and gas industry’s rush to fracking. Although we haven’t signed a lease for our land, we know that in this rural area, the industry only needs 65 percent of owners to agree — then they can drill even if we say no.

And when drilling is planned near homes, most banks, HUD, and FHA won’t give loans, so we can’t expect to sell and move elsewhere. Also, as soon as a drilling permit is signed, property values will be cut in half — money home-owners planned for old age. In the event of an accident causing surface or well contamination, our property will be worth nothing.

Fracking is on its way to Portage County. Already chemically laced frack fluid waste water is being trucked into beautiful Hiram for disposal right off S.R. 82. It is transported here in massive trucks because Pennsylvania banned it there. Do we really, really want all this?

I fear for our air, water aquifers, lovely lands, and (of course) for my own financial future. We just can’t give all this up for the profitable corporations of oil and gas.

Mary Greer

Portage County Resident