The Southeast Ohio Alliance to Save Our Water (SOASOW), in affiliation with the FreshWater Accountability Project, announced today it continues to wait word from the US Army Corps of Engineers regarding records requests and appeals sent to the Huntington office and Washington DC headquarters. In an ongoing attempt to understand the “partnering” relationships between the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District and the US Army Corps of Engineers, the SOASOW has yet to hear back from a second public records request appeal to the Huntington District Office.
“Even though the Freedom of Information Act makes it very clear that the public is to have access to these records, we continue to be frustrated that the Army Corps is not releasing information that we deem to be necessary to understand how the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District could be allowed to lease for unconventional shale drilling around and under public reservoirs, as well as sell reservoir water for profit,” stated Lea Harper of SOASOW. “From the sparse information we have received thus far, it seems the US Army Corps has only performed a cursory review of the potential threat to water quality and availability by allowing the MWCD to lease reservoirs to serve the risky and consumptive industry of high volume horizontal fracturing (fracking).”
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