As a result of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) board’s unanimous vote to approve the lease for horizontal high-volume fracturing (HHVF) of Seneca Reservoir in the area of Cambridge, Ohio last week, the co-founder of the citizens’ group, Southeast Ohio Alliance to Save Our Water (SOASOW), Lea Harper, pointed out that the conservancy district has placed itself in the crosshairs of a lawsuit. Lea read from a prepared statement at the Board meeting furnished by Bob Bowcock, lead environmental investigator for Erin Brockovich for the past 15 years, in which he noted that rivers, streams, ponds and lakes have been destroyed by subsurface infiltration of gas and oil byproducts as well as midnight dumping of oil field chemicals. Lea warned the conservancy district that they were not operating for public benefit by leasing public reservoirs for unconventional shale drilling.

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