Maria Montanez is our hero. You may remember years ago when she stopped traffic at the Cadle well in the Drinking Water Source Protection Area for the Meander Reservoir. Maria has continued her efforts to protect the drinking water for Mahoning Valley residents by monitoring and reporting spills and releases at the Bobcat Injection Well in Coitsville, formerly D&L.
Maria Montanez grew up in a community that suffered for years due to environmental degradation and injustice. Steel mills and fabricating plants were next door, and smoke in the air meant jobs, but it also caused poor health, cancer, and early deaths for many who lived there.
Today, her community is once again threatened by pollution, but not from steel
or aluminum plants. What has moved in next door is a fracking injection well that
disposes of millions of gallons of radioactive toxic waste from the Marcellus shale
in Pennsylvania. This "asset" was sold by D & L in bankruptcy court after one
of their injection wells caused damaging earthquakes in Youngstown and their owner was jailed for dumping radioactive fracking waste into the Mahoning River. Bobcat Energy of Canfield, run by former D & L employees have ignored warnings about the fault lines below this injection well.
Maria documented this blowout at this injection well and has repeatedly reported to the ODNR of the dangers. Maria told them she would continually monitor their activities and report anything that would endanger the air, land and water in her community. She took pictures and videotaped fracking waste spewing from a tank over the retaining wall, workers putting hoses into a field another time, and finally, during a power failure, employees dumping fracking waste out of the containment area which had flooded with it. Maria was arrested while videotaping this faulty injection well on Thursday, August 28. She has been heavily fined and has a court date set for November 6, 2020. Just a reminder to Ohioans of how community advocates can be punished for challenging the oil and gas industry with fines and arrests - so we certainly do not need ALEC bill SB33 to further punish peaceful protesters.
Maria has been a dedicated environmental activist for the past 9 years and steadfastly protested the drilling of fracking waste injection wells near our homes and in our drinking water protected watershed.
We must raise money to pay Maria's fines and court costs incurred on our behalf.
SUPPORT THIS BRAVE ACTIVIST, PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN
Maria Montanez grew up in a community that suffered for years due to environmental degradation and injustice. Steel mills and fabricating plants were next door, and smoke in the air meant jobs, but it also caused poor health, cancer, and early deaths for many who lived there.
Today, her community is once again threatened by pollution, but not from steel
or aluminum plants. What has moved in next door is a fracking injection well that
disposes of millions of gallons of radioactive toxic waste from the Marcellus shale
in Pennsylvania. This "asset" was sold by D & L in bankruptcy court after one
of their injection wells caused damaging earthquakes in Youngstown and their owner was jailed for dumping radioactive fracking waste into the Mahoning River. Bobcat Energy of Canfield, run by former D & L employees have ignored warnings about the fault lines below this injection well.
Maria documented this blowout at this injection well and has repeatedly reported to the ODNR of the dangers. Maria told them she would continually monitor their activities and report anything that would endanger the air, land and water in her community. She took pictures and videotaped fracking waste spewing from a tank over the retaining wall, workers putting hoses into a field another time, and finally, during a power failure, employees dumping fracking waste out of the containment area which had flooded with it. Maria was arrested while videotaping this faulty injection well on Thursday, August 28. She has been heavily fined and has a court date set for November 6, 2020. Just a reminder to Ohioans of how community advocates can be punished for challenging the oil and gas industry with fines and arrests - so we certainly do not need ALEC bill SB33 to further punish peaceful protesters.
Maria has been a dedicated environmental activist for the past 9 years and steadfastly protested the drilling of fracking waste injection wells near our homes and in our drinking water protected watershed.
We must raise money to pay Maria's fines and court costs incurred on our behalf.
SUPPORT THIS BRAVE ACTIVIST, PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN
Organizer
Leatra Harper
Organizer
Bowling Green, OH