Rep. Rader Puts Ohioans First, Urges Action Against Fracking of Nearly 3,000 acres of Land in Wayne National Forest

COLUMBUS — State Rep. Tristan Rader (D- Cleveland) reacted to the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s recent announcement that starting on September 15th companies will be able to bid on oil and gas leases on 2,840 acres of land in the Wayne National Forest.

“This is just continued exploitation of the people and resources of Ohio by large corporations. For generations, the people of this region and this state have been sidelined by the interested of extractive industries.” said Rep. Rader. “All over Ohio, we have a legacy of industry that has not been held accountable. From polluted water to brownfields that take millions of dollars to clean up, Ohioans should not be paying for these messes.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Rep. Rader’s visit to Washington County just earlier this month in which he heard directly from small producers and concerned community leaders how the mismanagement of fracking byproducts has been negatively impacting them.

Class II injection wells are used to dispose of oil and gas extraction related waste products, primarily brine. With proper siting and monitoring, this can be a safe disposal method for brine waste. However, residents began noticing brine waste resurfacing and worse, brine migration into production wells over three miles away. This migration threatens to contaminate local water sources and has already made many local oil producers’ wells unusable.

“Clearly we are at the precipice of an emergency,” Rep. Rader added. “We have water aquifers that are being threatened as we speak and instead of addressing the problem and ensuring that our communities have access to clean drinking water, the federal government has just introduced more risk to an already dire situation so oil and gas companies can profit.”

The sale of leases for the 41 impacted parcels of land will occur in September of 2026 and the protest period is open through August 15, 2026 at 4 PM Eastern Standard Time. Protests must reference specific parcels and be mailed or hand delivered to the Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States State Office at 5275 Leesburg Pike Falls Church, VA 22041. For additional official guidance from the BLM, please refer to page 9 of the linked guidance.  

See below the impacted parcels below that comprise the near 3,000 acres of public lands up for extraction:

OH-2026-09-1732
OH-2026-09-1731
OH-2026-09-0015
OH-2026-09-1579
OH-2026-09-1581
OH-2026-09-1601
OH-2026-09-1602
OH-2026-09-1604
OH-2026-09-1612
OH-2026-09-1614
OH-2026-09-1615
OH-2026-09-1629
OH-2026-09-1628
OH-2026-09-1627
OH-2026-09-1617
OH-2026-09-1626
OH-2026-09-1624
OH-2026-09-6267
OH-2026-09-6266
OH-2026-09-0101
OH-2026-09-0102
OH-2026-09-0100
OH-2026-09-0074
OH-2026-09-0066
OH-2026-09-0056
OH-2026-09-0058
OH-2026-09-0059
OH-2026-09-0060
OH-2026-09-0062
OH-2026-09-0061
OH-2026-09-0065
OH-2026-09-0067
OH-2026-09-0054
OH-2026-09-0055
OH-2026-09-0068
OH-2026-09-0073
OH-2026-09-0072
OH-2026-09-0069
OH-2026-09-0070
OH-2026-09-4405
OH-2026-09-0071