Marietta is an omen
The revolving door in Washington strikes again in Ohio.
The New York Times on July 29reported on fracking wastewater in Marietta. The report is essential reading for all Ohioans, but in short, Marietta has four injection wells within two miles of its drinking water, and those wells are pumped with 840,000 gallons of oil and gas/fracking wastewater daily.
Ohio sets its own regulations when it comes to injection wells, so our state is a coveted spot for dumping this radioactive waste. Yippee. But rest assured, our representatives and industry leaders assure us that this waste (all 1.4 billion gallons dumped into our state annually) will stay there forever and pose no significant risks to residents.
Not so fast.
It turns out this waste IS bubbling
to the surface in Marietta.
Surely someone is taking this seriously, perhaps the state senator who chairs the Ohio Senate Energy Committee, the committee in charge of shaping legislation that could regulate this incoming disaster?
Well, that would be Brian Chavez, the former CEO of Deeprock Disposal Solutions, an Ohio fracking wastewater injection company. Ohioans and Americans everywhere need to wake up and wake up now. The corruption of the revolving door and its resulting subservience to big industry is literally destroying our communities.
Tragically, it might be too late, but if humanity wants to continue to exist on this planet, we have to make decisions that put our communities over endless greed.
Elizabeth Fernando, Columbus
Ramaswamy doesn't know what he's talking about
Re "Ramaswamy keeps goofing basic tax facts," Aug. 2: My thanks to Michael Curtin for exposing the Ohio tax arrogance and ignorance of gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
I would like to pay less in taxes, but I want the state and local governments to do things for me and my fellow citizens. I’m willing to pay the necessary taxes, but I would like those whose income is much higher than mine to pay a larger share.
Charging a high sales tax on everything that everyone needs or wants is unnecessarily burdensome to people with low income. Regardless of income, everyone needs shelter and sustenance.
Since Ohio’s income tax was initiated in 1971, there have been many proposals to eliminate it, but all have failed.
The state income tax was initiated in 1971 in part to reduce the taxes on real estate and personal property. Tangible personal property included machines owned in business. Intangible personal property included such things as investments. The intangibles tax was minimal, but it required me to complete and file a form each year and send my tax payment.
Forty three other states had income taxes. Ranked from highest to lowest in 2014, Ohio’s tax rate was 34th.
Property taxes are local, not state. We, the people, vote for certain issues like schools and libraries, and we agree to tax our property to pay for them.
Ben Freudenreich, Columbus
Data centers sure do 'sound' good, don't they?
Re "Opponents of data centers are on the wrong side of history," July 30: Gene Marks, do you want a massive "hyperscale" data center in your own backyard? I would imagine you don't.
Your railroad comparison is clever, but it breaks down under its own weight. Railroads carried freight and people; a data center in your neighborhood carries nothing to you but noise, heat and a strained power grid. The benefits go only to shareholders, while the costs get passed off to the communities where the buildings sit.
The notion that AI will fuel "millions of new businesses" sounds great until you realize we're approaching an AI bubble burst, one that is even bigger than the dotcom crash. Betting a town's water supply and power grid on that promise is not a "wrong side of history" bet. It's just a bad one.
Building data centers so we don't "cede the field" to other nations sounds patriotic until you tally the damage they do to local environments: aquifers drained, generational farmland rezoned and taken from families, and diesel backup generators running next to elementary schools. I encourage you to do some research on Georgia Power taking families' homes in order to build a new transmission line to power data centers. Communities, and the people who actually live in them, aren't rejecting progress. They're asking who actually benefits from it, and so far, the answer isn't them.
Erica Wolf, Columbus
The Moreno embarrassment
How does Bernie Moreno serve the citizens of Ohio, his family or his faith by the profane diatribe launched toward Dr. Anthony Fauci? How does he explain his behavior to his children? Despite his disagreements, Ohio would be better served by a display of more professional, courteous behavior worthy of a U.S. senator. Unfortunately, he did not.
We all should be embarrassed.
Frederick D. Benton, Jr., Columbus
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Toxic water is bubbling out the ground in Marietta. We must stop this | Letters
