Yesterday, March 4, 2010, the Ohio EPA held a public hearing in Middletown, Ohio for comment regarding AK Steel’s latest permit application to Deep Well Inject Ferrous Chloride. Only two people showed up for the meeting, one a person with no interest in the process, and a County environmental compliance specialist.
It seems that those people living in the Middletown area directly affected by this disposal process don’t care what happens. AK Steel has been using Deep Well Injection since 1969 using two separate wells and has injected 580 million gallons of the hazardous material to a depth of approximately 3200 feet. The disposal field covers many city blocks of area and is under many homes.
The EPA has assured everyone that the field is safe, but what happens if an earthquake occurs in the disposal field area? Where would the Ferrous Chloride leak? Would it show up in drinking water? How about people who get their water from underground wells? Also, the newspaper misidentified the material being Deep Well Injected as Hydrochloric Acid rather than Ferrous. Both are HAZARDOUS MATERIALS!!
Of interest is that the permit application can only be viewed at the Middletown library. Also, what local notification did AK Steel and the EPA make?
Read the only article that discusses last nights meeting here:
http://tinyurl.com/y8sht46