Written by Mark Winkle   

Law proposed by initiative petition first to be submitted to the General Assembly
The language of the proposed law:
“The Ohio Drinking Water Protection Act”

A. (1) “Every citizen shall enjoy the right to have, consume, draw, and obtain clean and safe drinking water from the natural resources of the State of Ohio. A citizen’s drinking water supply shall be free from contamination by chemicals that have been deemed hazardous to their health pursuant to the standards set by the United State Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

To permit each citizen to continue to have access to a clean drinking water supply:
(2) It shall be illegal for any person(s) or legal entity to intentionally cause the underground contamination of any land(s) in Ohio by the introduction of hazardous substances or hazardous chemicals, whether proprietary or not, in Ohio by hydro-fracturing or by deep well injection of the hazardous chemicals whether proprietary or not.
(3) Any intentional underground contamination of any land(s), water by any person(s) or legal entity by a use of a hazardous substance whether proprietary or not, by means of hydraulic fracturing or by deep well injection of such chemicals in an amount in excess of: (a) 300 pounds per day but less than 1,000 pounds dry or liquid per day shall constitute a third degree felony punishable by a mandatory sentence of two to five years and a mandatory fine of $100,000; (d) 1,000 pounds but less than 10,000 pounds dry or liquid shall constitute a second degree felony punishable by a sentence of five to 25 years and a mandatory fine of $1,000,000; or (e) any amount in excess of 10,000 pounds dry or liquid per day will constitute a first degree felony punishable by a sentence of 25 years to life in prison and a mandatory fine of $10,000,000 per violation for every person involved in the decision or implementation of persons or equipment which caused the contamination event.
(f) Each day of a violation of any part of this act will constitute a separate offense.
4)(a) Sentences and fines will be levied against all person(s) directly or indirectly involved in any violation of this act including the members of the board of directors of the legal entity(ies) which is(are) responsible for the violation(s) if they had knowledge of, or failed to report the violation(s) of this act to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
4)(b) The act of failing to report a known violation of this act shall by any person shall be an illegal act of conspiracy which shall be punishable by a fine of $1,000,000 per failure to report a violation of this act and a sentence of seven to ten years in prison per violation that the subject failed to report. The sentencing court may reduce the suspect's sentence in exchange for cooperation and the suspects testimony against the violators of this act.
5) There shall be no exemptions of this act granted to any company, asset, or entity from any section of this act.
6) There shall be no exemption of any entity conducting business in the State of Ohio from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Superfund Act, or any other environmental law of the United States or of the State of Ohio which was previously enforced prior to the calendar year of 2005.
7) In the event that a contamination event occurs under section (A)(3)(d) or (e) of this act, the person(s) and legal entity causing the contamination event shall be held under no less than a mandatory ten million dollar $10,000,000 cash bond.
(B) Definition. Hazardous substances shall be defined as: Any element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated as hazardous under section 102 of CERCLA, including all proprietary chemicals; including oil or gas well production water;
Any hazardous substance designated under section 311(b) (2) (a) of the Clean Water Act, or any toxic pollutant listed under section 307(a) of the Clean Water Act.
Any hazardous waste having the characteristics identified or listed under section 3001 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Any hazardous air pollutant listed under section 112 of the Clean Air Act, as amended.
Any imminently hazardous chemical substance or mixture which the US EPA Administrator has "taken action under" section 7 of the Toxic Substances Control Act.
(C)(1) This law and all other laws pertaining to the mining of minerals or the exploration of oil and natural gas in the State of Ohio shall be administered and enforced by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and the Ohio Attorney General.
(C)(2). All fines and penalties levied as a result of any violation(s) of any section(s) of this act will be apportioned to the annual budget of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Enforcement Section with the exclusion of twenty-five percent being paid to an Ohio Renewable Energy Fund which will provide renewable energy grants to Ohio citizens for the purchase and installation of residential renewable energy equipment for their primary residence.
(C) (3) any violations of this act committed during any period of time after this law is in effect must be prosecuted, including those committed while the law is under judicial review.
(D)(1) All natural gas and oil wells permitted in Ohio must have vapor capture technology for all condensate tanks that are part of the oil and or gas well permit.
(D)(2) The section of all oil and gas permits presently permitted with the inclusion of flow back, fracking, brine, or chemical pits which presently exist on the date of the implementation of this law shall have all fluid removed from said storage pits or areas not later than six months from the date of the implementation of this law.
(D)(3) After the date of the implementation of this law or any section of it, such pits and storage areas as listed in section (D)(2) of this law shall be illegal.
(D)(4) The failure to of a person or legal entity to comply with section (D)(2) or (3) of this act will constitute a third degree felony and is punishable by a mandatory fine of $100,000 per day that said entity is not in compliance with the applicable section of this law.
(E)(1) All chemicals transported into or out of the State of Ohio for the purpose(s) of storage, injection, or other use(s) which originated in the State of Ohio from oil or gas production, including brine water, flow back water, and production water, or from other manufacturing or production processes must be properly tested, identified, and manifested by a USEPA certified laboratory before being transported into or out of Ohio whether said chemicals are proprietary or not.
(E)(2) The failure to test, identify, and manifest said chemicals in (E)(1) of this act will constitute a fifth degree felony punishable by a fine of $10,000 per shipment which will be levied against both the shipper of said chemicals listed in section (E)(3) of this act.
(F)(1) The preparation of, and or signing of one or more falsified or misleading Chemical Analysis documents or shipping manifests by any person or entity required to conduct said chemical analysis or to prepare said chemical analysis documents under section (E) of this act shall be a violation of this act. Each violation of this section of the act will be a first degree misdemeanor punishable by a mandatory fine of $5,000 per document which is falsified or misleading, against the legal entity, and a fine of $1,000 per document and a sentence of one year in prison shall be levied against the preparer and or certifying chemical engineer or other employee who has intentionally falsified said chemical analysis report on any shipment
(F)(2) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to insure that an accurate chemical analysis report for every shipment of chemicals under section (E) of this act, is available to emergency responders in case of an chemical emergency.
(G) Civil liability. Any company which intentionally contaminates the water supply of a citizen or citizens shall be liable for not less than $250,000 in actual damages per citizen whose water supply was contaminated. No limit on punitive damages shall be set by any court of law for cases brought by any person to any court under this act.
(H) Oil and Gas Drilling shall not be permitted on any public lands owned by the State of Ohio. All present leases in effect at the time of the passage of this lease shall be terminated forthwith upon the passage of this act.

(I) The above ground storage of drying hazardous wastes shall not be permitted.

(J) Each company which produces a waste stream of hazardous chemicals shall recycle in-house through a variety of (BAT) best avauilable technologies, the hazardous wastes that it produces as a result of its' manufacturing process(es) a minimum of 5% per year of said hazardous chemicals beginning in calendar year 2014. After 2014, the amount of hazardous chemicals which must be recycled in-house will increase 8% per year until all manufacturers attain the standard of ninety-percent recycled hazardous waste streams from their manufacturing process(es). No part of any manufacturing process for any company may be exempted from any part of this legislation by any means.

(J) This law will be in effect thirty days from its passage by a plural vote in a general election held in Ohio.

This law will be retroactive to cover existing wells. It has been submitted for legal review to partition it into ballot issues. Our email: ohiocleanwater#gamail.com
Our website: ohiocitizenscleanwaterinitiative.blogspot.com
We will be raising funds on Indigogo.com in November of 2012 to pay for the citizen's initiative signature drive.