ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A Barnesville resident shared her concerns about the harm caused by cracker plants and fracking Wednesday with the Belmont County Board of Commissioners.

Jill Hunkler spoke at Wednesday’s commission meeting on the heels of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost pursuing legal action Monday against Austin Master Services in Martins Ferry for alleged improper storage of oil and gas industry waste.

“I’m hoping this Austin Masters situation will help you know the risks and concerns,” Hunkler said in reference to ethane cracker plants and fracking operations in the county. “The Austin Masters situation is one where a lot of harm could have been mitigated earlier.”

Hunkler, a member of the group Concerned Ohio River Residents, had previously spoken to the commissioners in 2021 regarding oil and gas concerns in the area.

On Wednesday, she came to commissioners with the “same complaints” she had three years ago.

Hunkler noted that with fracking in the area increasing, an influx of new, smaller companies who do “even fewer things by the book than the larger companies” were coming to the county.

Hunkler recalled seeing “so many well pads everywhere” within a mile of her Barnesville home. She worries her community is being “poisoned” by “volatile organic compounds, silica sand, noise pollution and light pollution.”

“Nobody in (Barnesville) is going to get any financial benefit from these pads,” Hunkler said. “You (commissioners) talk about the financial benefit being why you support these industries. This is a perfect example of how fracking is not going to be any benefit to my community, and we’re going to get all the harm.”

One site of concern for Hunkler is the Empire OH SWD injection well located near the Union Local School District campus. Hunkler said she had complained multiple times to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that the fracking waste processing facilities had been allowed to operate in an uncovered tent for “over a year.”

Hunkler’s largest issue regarding the injection well is its proximity to the Union Local campus. She said the injection site releases radioactive elements that are “horribly toxic to human health” that could be ingested.

“Every time I call to complain and ask what the deal is, the ODNR says it’s under construction because now two injection wells are supposedly being put on that tiny site,” Hunkler said. “It’s always in disarray.”

The second location Hunkler voiced concerns about to commissioners was the injection well site at the intersection of U.S. 40 and Ohio 331.

The site has been abandoned since April 2023 when its owner Omni Energy was ordered to pay $463,551.52 to the Falcon Drilling Co. for its work at the facility. Hunkler said there are “at least over a dozen” containers filled with radioactive waste at the well site.

Hunkler said the tanks need to be removed, citing accounts from residents nearby who “monitor the site all the time” who said moisture is beneath the facility’s tanks due to waste leaking from them.

Hunkler suggested the commissioners buy the site and remove the old tanks or meet with ODNR and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to get something done about the site.

Hunkler then asked the commissioners to find new economic development plans not involving the fossil fuel industry.

Commissioner Josh Meyer said he “does not disagree” with Hunkler’s concerns regarding the injection well site near Union Local. He asked her whether the state had “been out there to check on that.”

Hunkler responded that she has contacted state officials, but if one of the commissioners calls “maybe they’ll go there.”

Commission President Jerry Echemann thanked Hunkler for voicing her concerns and said he and Meyer were “glad to be here” to hear them. Commissioner J.P Dutton was not present at the meeting.

Pease Township Trustee Mike Bianconi echoed Hunkler’s concerns when he spoke after her at the meeting. He said over the past 30 years, he had seen oil and gas companies “come into the area, suddenly go bankrupt and then leave residents stuck to pick the whole thing up.”

“Everybody here, our pocketbooks are stuck to fix this mess,” Bianconi said. “I hope that doesn’t happen in Martins Ferry, but it’s certainly possible elsewhere.”

Bianconi added that to think illegal waste dumping doesn’t happen in the county is wrong.

“It (illegal dumping) does happen here, and we need your help,” Bianconi told the commissioners. “We need your voice to say, ‘Hey, this is wrong.'”