At a special meeting on July 29, the Marietta City Council heard testimony from experts on the risks of expanding a brine injection facility by DeepRock Disposal Solutions LLC, located just outside of Marietta. The chamber was filled beyond capacity with residents voicing concern.

The planned expansion is designed to take in more fracking brine and “other” waste from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where injection permits supposedly cannot be obtained as easily.

Fracking brine comes from the drilling of natural gas wells in shale layers. It is a residue that must be treated or disposed of to allow fracking operations to exist.

To dispose of the brine, it is injected into the ground through a well that reaches far below the drinking-water layer. But it has in some cases migrated to the surface through existing oil and gas production wells. This shows that we don’t fully understand the underground geology – and that cross-layer migration is possible.

Brine is not simply “salt water.” It contains radioactive elements such as radium, actinium and others – sometimes at concentrations over 40 times higher than safe drinking water standards. Since 2019, injection wells in Washington and Noble Counties have leaked millions of gallons of brine into production wells, causing environmental damage and over $1.2 million in clean-up costs. Regulators, however, have allowed operations to continue with modified permits.

The risk to local aquifers is serious. If our drinking water were contaminated, cleanup would be impossible – unlike the lead pipe crisis in Flint, Michigan, which, though costly, is fixable. Aquifers poisoned by radioactivity cannot be restored. DeepRock, an LLC with only limited funds in insurance coverage, would likely declare bankruptcy, leaving the public to shoulder the costs, which could run into the hundreds of millions.

As an engineer with over 30 years of experience in the chemical industry, I know firsthand that companies are normally required to prove they can fund site cleanup. DeepRock has not demonstrated this ability. When pressed, its attorney even failed to provide data on the brine’s composition.

It was encouraging, however, to see Marietta’s city council stand united – across party lines and alongside environmental groups – to defend our community’s drinking water. In today’s polarized political climate, that solidarity is both rare and vital.

Horst Siffrin

Marietta