Tom Tomastik with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources tells The Columbus Dispatch nearly half the brine that went into Ohio disposal wells during the first three months of 2011 came from other states. The newspaper reports 1.18 million barrels were brought into Ohio, enough for 76 Olympic swimming pools.

Tomastik says incoming brine has seen a dramatic increase since Pennsylvania told sewage plants to stop dumping brine into streams.

The Ohio Environmental Council says the state needs to know more about chemicals in the brine. Tomastik says the state’s disposal wells are safe and don’t contaminate groundwater.

At the bottom of that little tidbit is a link to the original article in the Columbus Dispatch, from where they summarized their misleading information. What does the Dispatch report?:

About 15 percent of that water comes back up, tainted with salt, drilling chemicals and hazardous metals. After they’re “fracked,” the wells continue to produce brine that contains higher concentrations of salt, metals and minerals.

Pennsylvania sewage plants dumped so much brine that it became a threat to drinking water. The brine contains high levels of bromides, which help form hazardous compounds called trihalomethanes in drinking water.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett made it clear to the plants to stop dumping brine. Kevin Sunday, spokesman for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, said all the plants have stopped.

Pennsylvania is so concerned with the hazardous materials used to do the fracturing and that are created by the fracturing that they are no longer disposing of the material in their own state. There is such a danger to the citizens of Pennsylvania that the chemicals can’t be allowed to remain in that state. So, they bring the chemicals here and are dumping them into our environment.

You don’t read that in our hometown, Republican-run paper though. On the same page as this information are links to articles in favor of drilling in our county. The gas companies are coming in and renting hotel rooms and tipping waitresses. This, according to the Times-Reporter, is a boon for our county. There is no mention of what this will do to our ground water, our lakes or our citizens. There is no mention of the fact that these gas companies will rape our countryside, lie to the people who own the land and then get the hell out of dodge when they can’t do anymore damage. Nope. It’s a boon boom.

On the article about how awesome the drilling will be for local businesses, some poor soul said this:

Yes, the gas and drilling companies will bring and help expand business and bring in new businesses.
The drilling companies will tear up RT 43 and other roads with their heavy trucks, so road construction will boom.

People will be getting sicker quicker because in the valleys in Carroll County, the air will not air move out . quickly like does it Texas, so the toxic air will hang around and make animals and humans sick. Then of course there is the water comtamination possibility. So the health care industry will boom for animals and humans.

Being that water contamination is a strong possibility, providing water to contaminated water areas should bring in a new business.

Then, there is the strong possibility of earthquakes as have been reported in Arkansas, Texas and the UK. So that could spur on the house restoration business. Seems like the business expansion possibilities could be endless. One question, at what cost?

Exactly.

It’s funny, though, because their isn’t a sudden boom in jobs in this area. Not even hotel and waitressing jobs. There aren’t any new businesses starting up around this influx of gas drilling and/or dumping. But it’s been great for, well, someone.

Kasich has opened up our state parks for this drilling and has invited out-of-state waste to be dumped here. We’re even more friendly to environmental pollution now. You know, I was considering moving somewhere close to Pittsburgh (because I hear that’s an awesome city) and now I’m thinking more about it. I mean, sure it’s still in the mountains, but they’re shipping their waste to my back yard, so it’s got to be a better environment.

I want to thank Ohioans who were most likely to vote against Kasich and his evil empire for staying home last November. Without your apathy, this monster wouldn’t be sitting in the governor’s mansion right now and his teabaggers wouldn’t have control of the statehouse. If Strickland would have won, it’s quite possible we would have told Pennsylvania to fuck off when they asked to inject their pollution in our ground. It’s a good thing Obama made you mad enough to sit home. You’re soo showing him what’s what. I mean, who cares if your children are going to have to clean up this mess or head to cleaner pastures, right? Good for you for showing those assholes in the federal government you’re not going to stand for having your fee-fees hurt..

When I was a child, I used to go visit my aunt’s farm, which was partially strip mined in the 60s and 70s. The strip mining company “reclaimed” the land by planting evergreen trees around her property and aerating the ponds left from the digging. But they left most of the destroyed land bare and it was dangerous for us to play in the old mining areas. We couldn’t swim in the pond because it was poisonous and the creek water had this crazy, oily film on it. I remember thinking it was interesting because it was so colorful– like a rainbow. I used to sneak under the pine trees to dig through the slate for the bigger pieces so I could paint on them. I had to be careful because it would cut my feet and I’d get in trouble for going over there. When I was young, as a child visiting from the big city of Columbus, that was neat. Now I know better. Now they’re remining parts of the county, creating more hazardous conditions for children, and drilling more so the water isn’t safe to swim in. Back then my aunt had to ship drinking water in because it wasn’t safe to drink from the tap. They still don’t drink from it, but I think it may be more habit than necessity at this point. I asked her if she was going to allow the gas company to come drill on her land (which is rich with it):

“Over my dead body.”

She hasn’t forgotten, but it seems like everyone else has.

I hate John Kasich. I hate him deep in the depth of my soul. The man is ripping my home state apart and shitting down our collective throats. And I hate the people who stayed home instead of voting because they gave him to us. We can’t recall him and he doesn’t give two flying fucks about getting re-elected. This is a man who’s looking to get into the national spotlight by proving to the teabaggers how bad he can fuck up the lives of the people in this state. He’s running along merrily slashing benefits to poor folks, selling off state property and pissing away good jobs. You know he’s a real piece of work when my wingnut father-in-law hates him as much as I do.

I went off of politics when that man was elected. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I trekked my happy ass to the voting booth and cast my ballot for Strickland, who isn’t a miracle worker but who also isn’t trying to become Teabagger King ™. I told people I worked with and family members that they’d better vote against the nutters or the shit was going to hit the fan. Pfft. They didn’t care. I heard a lot of “My vote doesn’t matter” crap. Well, considering Kasich won with less than half the vote of half the registered voters in the state, I’m going to say that yes, their votes did matter.

I got even more discouraged when we went down to our cabin in the state park and there was logging going on. That beautiful forest is going bye-bye because that man is willing to allow drilling and logging there. Hundreds of thousand of acres of land are going to be sacrificed to the corporate gods. Not to bring jobs to Ohioans, of course, but to give money to those corporations. The lake will be polluted and the wildlife will be killed off, but who cares? There’s money to be made in them thar hills and, by golly, he’s going to get it out!

As he does this, he sends back money that was allocated for a state high-speed rail² and money that was to provide operating costs for the state schools, while simultaneously trying to dismantle the state’s unions and taking money away from those that need it most– the Department of Aging can say good-bye to 90% of it’s funding³. Today we find out that Kasich has sacrificed $250mil that is to go to schools.

So, while Ohioans are laughing their asses off at King James’ loss to the Dallas Mavericks⁴, our oh-so-funny governor, elected by a minority of registered voters⁵, is burning this beautiful state to the ground and pissing all over it’s actual citizens. I guess the Obama Democrats really got the message with this one, huh? You showed him not to ignore you⁶. My beautiful home state is dying a slow and painful death, but Lebron James got the what-for and Obama supporters were shown the power of the Firebagger. Yay us!

And that man, fucking John Kasich, is the reason I can’t do politics anymore. I’ve lost hope. I see no silver lining or any end. It doesn’t matter one fucking bit to me what’s going on in Washington⁷ because my state and the people who live here are suffering so bad. I don’t give a fuck about some dude who may or may not have committed espionage because my favorite state park (and all the beauty within) is getting sold off, acre by acre. But if I pay too much attention to what that evil, piece of shit teabagger puppet is doing, I’ll lose my mind. The man is staying put until the end of his term and what can I do about it? I hear from people around me “this got cut off” or “record foreclosures in the county” or “no money for medicine” or “I can’t get a home because I’m disabled and there is no funding to help me.”⁸ He would’ve lost, you know, if Democrats would’ve gotten to the goddamned polls. He won by a minority and he was given the power to rape our state by the people who stayed the fuck home. It’s truly maddening. How can that not piss a normal person off?

It’s no wonder the number of drunk neighbors in my neighborhood seems to be growing. Fuck, John Kasich.

1. I’ll pretend not to notice that Cleveland pro teams suck anyway and the dude was never going to get a ring here. That is not the point.
2. And 16,000 jobs, of course.
3. Those damned elderly, retards and crazy folks don’t need help and fuck the poor people on Medicaid. Let them all wither and die!
4. Yesterday’s honorary Ohioans.
5. Fuck you, Ed Shulz and any other Firebaggers who encouraged people to stay home in November. I do absolutely blame the Democrats who stayed home.
6. This post can be rewritten with a number of different state governors as the subject.
7. Except that shit with Anthony Weiner took my mind off of it for a minute. Asshole.
8. That one comes from The Mother, by the way.

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And their grassroots movement? Bought and paid for by Koch Industries, who have operations in Wisconsin and would probably like to see the prevailing wage come down and eventually the end to all worker’s right. Think not? Think that billionaire owners and CEOs want what’s best for the average worker? Think they won’t fight to put us back in Company towns? You’re wrong. They’ve taken their production overseas because they can get workers they can exploit for $2 a day, who work without breaks and safety measures, who can barely feed their children on what little they make. They would take us back there in a second. It doesn’t matter if you’re part of a union or not. If you enjoy any laws and regulations that protect your employment– including bereavement days and not being fired for being a woman– unions have brought that to you.

The right and those who oppose unions say that the unions are fighting against the taxpayers– the union members are taxpayers. They say the unions are fighting against the voters (presumably those who voted for Walker)– the union members are voters. They call the unions anti-American– the union members are American. These protests started when American voters and taxpayers went to the Wisconsin state capitol. They are exercising their First Amendment right of freedom to “peaceably assemble” and “petition for a governmental redress of grievances”. These are Americans who are fighting for their rights and they are being vilified by the teabagging right. Because the teabaggers are lead by billionaires who just don’t have enough power and money.

Today there were tens of thousands of protesters and hundreds of counter protesters in Madison. Even though the teabaggers would have liked to cause some disturbances, there were no arrests for violence. It remained peaceful. Will it work? Probably not. Because, even though the people have voiced their opposition to Scott Walker’s bill to bust the unions, the teabagging Wisconsin governor will do what he wants. He will continue to give Koch Industries billions of dollars in tax cuts, while cutting the pay of teachers and other public employees, all the while falsely claiming that there is a budget shortfall. And there will still be people who blame that on the unions. They will argue that the teachers should sacrifice his/her pay, benefits and retirement to save taxpayer money, but ignore the fact that these corporations get a free fucking ride from the government.

I am not a member of a union nor have I ever been a member of a union. Neither is TheMan (though the GI Bill he used to go to college was fought for by a union). But I am a union supporter. I am a supporter of worker’s rights. I am aware that the billionaire GOP party would like nothing more than to dismantle the working class/middle class. They’ve been chipping away at wages and benefits for years and now people have had enough. Now they’re going to speak out. This is democracy in action and this is what we need to take our country back. Not some goddamned miracle worker in the White House (who was never going to be what the purists thought they had)– people saying “Enough!” and standing the fuck up. No one paid me to say that, by the way. I didn’t get an email or “talking points”. I see what’s happening and I stand with the unions on my own.

I don’t begrudge the union members for their wages and benefits. Shit, I wish I had them. They came together and worked for them. A lot of people say “If I can’t have it, why should they?” Because that’s just heartfelt generosity and empathy, right? No? Of course, I still am one of those people who don’t get jealous or begrudge anyone for their better life unless they got that from exploiting other people. Walmart brings down the prevailing wage in my town because it’s our county’s largest employer and so that gives a lot of the non-union employers a reason to deny giving a cost-of-living wage. That includes the hourly employees in my store and TheMan’s employer. The higher wages bring up the prevailing wage and give more people higher paychecks. Higher paychecks mean more income taxes coming in (no job= cities go broke) and more money going out into the community (the cities are able to fix infrastructure and the citizens spend money on extras like going shopping). See how that works?

Regardless of the value to my community that higher wages and more benefits brings, collective bargaining is a right of the members of the group. Taking away that power is taking away their rights. We’ve lost too many rights as it is.

1. At the most
2. NEA is in the top 10

Ha! What a fucking joke. Boy, Mr. Space, you sure showed me, you fucking coward. And that goes for everyone else who bowed down and kissed the feet of the King and his lackey. I imagine we’ll catch a record number of potential terrorists now, won’t we? Just in time for you sorry cobags to sign off on it again six months from now. We’ll never be safer, isn’t that right? Better get those grannies rounded up, Mr. Space, we don’t want anyone singing against the King. Good thing we have such tough terror laws or those damned old ladies would be raising hell for me and mine. Who cares about the damned Constitution anyway? Certainly not you.

I want to hope for a better government in 2008. I want to be like a whole lot of other disgruntled citizens who see an end to this madness in the near future. But every time the Congress that I hoped so hard for shows me that their in line with the King my heart sinks lower and lower. They’re afraid of looking weak on terrorism. Constitution? What Constitution? Ha!

Mr. Space, feel free to email me when you find bin Laden, ok? I mean, you are going to find bin Laden and put an end to al Qaeda now, aren’t you? Do you even know what you voted for?

P.S.

Zack Space put out a press release touting his accomplishments in his first seven months as Representative. In part it says:

When my constituents sent me to Congress, they were looking for a fresh start a break from the embarrassing representation that gave the 18th a bad name. With so much trust placed in me, I knew I had to hit the ground running, and that effort has already paid off.”

Every day, I fight hard for Ohio’s 18th Congressional District, and I am excited about the progress we will make in the next year and a half.

He has voted to expand FISA and make Bush’s previously illegal actions legal. He voted to hand Bush a blank check for which to wage war. He has gone right along with everything that his Republican counterparts ask of him. Change? Nope. The only change he brought our neck of the boondocks was changing Ohio 18 from Republican to DINO. Creating real change and taking back the country from the fear mongers takes courage. Where’s that?

[H/T Glenn Greenwald]