As the sun rose over the hills surrounding Malabar Farm in Richland County, Ohio this past Saturday morning, chasing away thick fog, so too did Frack Free Ohio's action team, arriving just outside the entrance a little before 8am to hold a demonstration intended to engage the thousands of visitors to the park's 37th annual Heritage Days. Dubbed our “Rapid Response” team, the entire action was basically planned and initiated over a 48-hour period and team members were exuberant over the results. We literally engaged thousands of people entering the park, many who seemed to have never heard of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. And many others who had.
It was also a re-dedication of Louis Bromfield's Big House and we hoped to catch the attention of Governor John Kasich, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer and Representative Mark Romanchuk as they arrived for the 10am ceremony. A steady stream of cars began a little after 9am and did not let up until much later in the day. We caught a quick glimpse of Romanchuk as he went by and unlike the hundreds of honks, waves and thumbs up from the myriad of other passing motorists, he appeared not to notice our fifty-yard stretch of banners, waving fracktivists and signs protesting fracking. More specifically, the signs protested the threat of Class 2 injection wells and the huge volumes of toxic waste being transported into Ohio daily and shoved into the ground. Louis Bromfield was a native of the area, a writer and most importantly a conservationist who practiced sustainable farming techniques. “What Would Bromfield Do?” was the question of the day. With Bromfield not able to answer the question directly on the issue of Ohio becoming a toxic fracking waste disposal zone, we attempted to address the issue in an open letter to the Governor and other policy makers responsible for Malabar Farm State Park and Richland County in general. We are releasing the letter publicly and copies have been mailed out with fact sheets to validate the points raised in the letter.
