‘Concern has been mounting among residents of the US states of Ohio and West Virginia over health risks from chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing activities or fracking. Waste from gas fracking sites is brought to landfills but no tests for radiation or other health-damaging effects are actually done. There is also the twin threat of worsening air and ground water pollution and the depletion of local freshwater resources.

About 100,000 liters of chemicals and more than 18 million liters of water are used per frack. Water mixed with sand and chemicals is injected into a borehole at high pressure and factures the rock. The gas or oil released during the process is pumped out. The boreholes are lined with steel pipes and have protective cement casings. Fracking wastewater cannot be returned into a water body. It remains underground. The problem is, however, that that with each new frack the cement expands and contracts and eventually cracks and then the fracking fluid seeps through and contaminates the water table.

Kip Rondy, co-owner of Green Edge Gardens in Amesville, Ohio, was among those recently arrested for blocking the K&H Injection Well in Athens County. He fears that fracking might cause irreparable harm to the ground water and aquifers.’

Read more: US fracking nightmare: Ohio and West Virginia to face massive poisoning