Officials unsure of two sites accepting fracking waste - WTRF 7 News Sports Weather - Wheeling Steubenville

Two sites in Belmont County are accepting out of town and out of state fracking waste water. Several Belmont County officials believe it may be a losing situation.

They say one facility on Route 214 has already been accepting fracking water for more than a year. Another new facility outside Barnesville is about to open for business.

Commissioner Matt Coffland says taking other state's waste water seems to have no advantage for Belmont County.

"That we receive no tax dollars from them dumping out-of-state waste water into our county," said Coffland. "And if we are going to receive it we should at least receive something to benefit our county for that."

Ironically in a letter commissioners just received, a faith-based group called "FACT," claims that fracking water contains radioactivity, arsenic, heavy metals and many toxins.

The letter says, "This endangers our water and our air, which is vital." Health reasons are among Coffland's concerns.

"Well health risks are always a concern of the county, county commissioners, our first priority is safety and yes we do worry about that," he said.

Belmont County Auditor Andy Sutak says the state reaps some of the tax benefits from these operations, but Belmont County gets nothing. He says there are still too many unknowns about this waste water.

"The concern is that somewhere down the road and I'm sure the commissioners have voiced their opinion on that is that we don't know what will happen ten years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now," said Sutak.