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(CRESTVIEW, Fla.) — A circuit court judge granted a former Florida deputy $100,000 bond for pre-trial release on Thursday in connection with the shooting death of U.S. Air Force Sr. Airman Roger Fortson who was killed in his own home in May.

Eddie Duran, 38, was denied pretrial release in his first court appearance on Tuesday at the Okaloosa County Circuit Court. In Thursday’s hearing, Duran, who appeared before a judge, avoided the $250,000 bond amount asked by the state but was denied the $10,000 requested by his attorneys, according to local ABC affiliate WEAR.

The Okaloosa County Circuit Court ruled that Duran cannot possess any firearms, come into contact with Fortson’s family or leave the First Judicial Circuit area of Florida, WEAR reported. The court did not require Duran to wear a GPS monitor, the report noted.

“Former Okaloosa Deputy Eddie Duran, his family, and our entire defense team extends condolences to the family and friends of Airman Roger Fortson as they mourn his tragic death,” Rod Smith, Duran’s attorney, said in a statement to ABC News after the hearing Thursday. “There will be no doubt that on May 3, 2024, Airman Fortson knew of, and was plainly angered by, the presence of law enforcement at the front door of his apartment. It was Airman Fortson who, after being made aware that a law enforcement officer was at his door, chose to arm himself with a semi-automatic pistol before responding to the deputy.”

Duran’s arrest on Monday came after the Florida state attorney filed one count of manslaughter with a firearm against him last Friday. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Fortson, 23, was in his home in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on May 3 when Duran responded to the apartment for a call reporting a domestic disturbance, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. Fortson was alone in the apartment at the time, police said.

In body-worn camera footage released by the sheriff’s office, Fortson is seen holding a gun in his right hand with his arm extended downward and the muzzle pointing at the floor as he opens the door in response to the deputy, who can be heard announcing twice that he’s with the sheriff’s office.

The footage, reviewed by ABC News, also shows Fortson had his left hand up, palm showing, gesturing towards the deputy when he opened the door. Duran shot Fortson within seconds of the door opening, according to the footage. Fortson died of his injuries.

The deputy said he saw Fortson armed with a gun and claimed that Fortson took a step toward the deputy and had a look of aggression in his eyes, according to an interview Duran conducted with the sheriff’s office during their subsequent investigation.

“We believe very strongly that he’s entitled to a good defense, and we look forward to our day in court,” Smith, who joined the case as part of the defense team for the nonprofit Florida Deputy Sheriffs Association, told ABC News in a phone call prior to the hearing on Thursday. “We strongly dispute the decision by the office of the state attorney to file on this case. Our view of the evidence does not support that he committed a crime defending himself, standing his ground while trying to enforce the law.”

Duran was terminated in May, according to a May 31 sheriff’s department statement obtained by ABC News.

Fortson’s girlfriend, who asked not to be identified due to fears for her safety, spoke in May to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV, telling the station her and Fortson were having a conversation on the phone when the shooting occurred.

“We continue to wish Mr. Fortson’s family comfort and peace, as the former deputy’s criminal case proceeds,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office previously told ABC News in a statement. “We stand by our decision to terminate Mr. Duran as a result of the administrative internal affairs investigation that found his use of force was not objectively reasonable.”

A sweep of the home did not find another person in the apartment besides Fortson, police said. In the body camera video, a woman, presumed to be a building manager, explains to the officer that someone in the building notified her of the disturbance and that she called police.

Fortson’s family said in a statement to ABC News last Friday that the charges marked a “first step towards justice” in the case.

“Nothing can ever bring Roger back, and our fight is far from over, but we are hopeful that this arrest and these charges will result in real justice for the Fortson family,” the statement said. “Let this be a reminder to law enforcement officers everywhere that they swore a solemn oath to protect and defend, and their actions have consequences, especially when it results in the loss of life.”

According to Smith, Duran will post bond later Thursday.

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.

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(GRAND CANYON VILLAGE, Ariz.) — Breaks in a 12-and-a-half-mile long water main at Grand Canyon National Park that emerged on the heels of catastrophic flash flooding have prompted officials to halt overnight lodging on the canyon’s South Rim ahead of what was expected to be a busy Labor Day weekend at one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Four significant breaks have been discovered in the Transcanyon Waterline that supplies water from the canyon for use throughout the park, officials said.

The busted waterline has forced park officials to temporarily halt park concessions and overnight accommodations, including the El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge, Phantom Ranch, Delaware North’s Yavapai Lodge and Trailer Village, officials said.

“These measures are crucial for ensuring the safety and sustainability of water resources. The goal is to restore full operational status for overnight guests on the South Rim as quickly as possible,” National Park officials said in a statement.

It was unclear when water will be fully restored, but officials warned visitors the restrictions will run throughout the Labor Day holiday.

As of Thursday, no water was being pumped to either the South or North Rims of the canyon, officials said.

Only dry camping will be allowed on the canyon’s South Rim, where most campground spigots have been turned off, officials said. Faucets in bathrooms on the South Rim are still working, as well as spigots at the Mather Campground check-in kiosk on the South Rim, but officials are asking visitors to conserve water.

“We are asking residents and visitors to help conserve water by limiting showers to five minutes or less, turning off faucets while shaving or brushing teeth, flushing toilets selectively, washing laundry with full loads, and reporting leaks to the appropriate offices,” park officials said.

The Grand Canyon will remain open for day use, but campfires and charcoal barbecues will be prohibited, officials said.

The announcement follows flash flooding this month that prompted more than 100 rescues, caused major damage to the small village of Supai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and led to the death of a hiker who was washed away in the flood waters.

But park officials said challenges from the waterline issues were occurring before the Aug. 22 flash flooding.

The Transcanyon Waterline was built in the 1960s and officials believe it has exceeded its expected lifespan. Since 2010, there have been more than 85 major breaks in the waterline that have disrupted water delivery, park officials said.

The National Park Service recently started construction on a $208 million rehabilitation of the Transcanyon Waterline.

“This crucial investment in infrastructure will ensure the park can meet water supply needs for six million annual visitors and approximately 2,500 year-round residents,” park officials said in a statement.

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(WEST GLACIER, Mont.) — The body of a 32-year-old climber has been found after an apparent fall a week after he went missing.

Grant Marcuccio’s body was found at around 2 p.m. on Sunday, the National Park Service said this week.

The cause of death is still under investigation, but traumatic injuries and the location of his body indicate he likely fell, according to the NPS.

Marcuccio was found east of McPartland Peak, below the ridgeline between Heavens Peak and McPartland Peak.

His body was transported to the Apgar horse corrals.

Marcuccio was last seen by his hiking party on Aug. 18. He had separated from his party to summit McPartland Peak alone and was planning to meet them again at a designated location.

That evening the hiking party alerted rangers that he never showed up to the meet-up spot.

A search for Marcuccio by land and air began on Aug. 19.

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(SALIDA, Colo.) — An insurance underwriter who was rescued on a central Colorado mountain after allegedly being left behind by his co-workers was hiking to raise money for World Central Kitchen, according to his company.

The hiker, 46-year-old Steve Stephanides, was rescued on Saturday after enduring a night stuck on 14,230-foot Mt. Shavano during a freezing rain storm, officials said.

Contacted by ABC News on Wednesday, Stephanides said his company, the Beazley global insurance firm, was still gathering facts about the expedition and referred all questions to his company’s spokesperson.

Breazley CEO Adrian Cox, who is based in London, released a statement Thursday morning to ABC News, praising the Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South, an all volunteer rescue team in Colorado, for saving his employee’s life.

“We are very grateful to the Chaffee County Search and Rescue South who came to the aid of one of our employees after he encountered difficulties during a charity hike. Chaffee County SAR’s swift response and brave actions, during adverse weather conditions, ensured that our colleague was rescued and returned safely,” Cox said.

A spokesperson for Beazely confirmed to ABC News that company employees were on Mt. Shavano as a part of an annual charity hiking trip to raise money for World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit humanitarian organization founded in 2010 by celebrity chef José Andrés to deliver meals in disaster areas around the globe, including war zones in Ukraine and Gaza.

“This charity hike has been running for over a decade and many individuals have participated on multiple occasions,” Cox said. “We are proud of their commitment to their fundraising efforts and will continue to work with those involved to ensure they fully recover from this incident and get the support they need.”

Cox did not provide additional details on how the near-tragedy occurred on the annual office charity hike.

“In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks, one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone,” Chaffee County Search and Rescue — South said in a statement.

Previous online posts and photos from Beazely colleagues indicate that this was at least the second year in a row Stephanides has participated in the charity hike.

The office outing gone wrong unfolded Friday on Mt. Shavano in central Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, according to Danny Andres, president of the volunteer rescue group.

“Our subject was getting close to the summit and took a break, and some of the people who were in his group were starting to head down,” Danny Andres told ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday. “He decided to carry on up the summit.”

While 14 employees made it down the mountain safely, rescue officials said one was left to complete the summit solo. Andres said the worker made it to the summit at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, he became “disoriented as to where the trail was.”

The hiker used his cellphone to pin-drop his location to his co-workers, who informed him that he was on the wrong route and instructed him to hike back up to the summit to get to the correct trail down, rescue officials said in a statement.

“In his initial attempts to descend, he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” according to officials.

Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, Stephanides sent another location pin-drop to his colleagues that he was near the correct trail. Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, rescue officials said in a statement.

“Being in those kind of cold, freezing rain, winds it takes a toll on you,” Andres said.

At least seven different rescue teams from across Colorado were involved in the search for Stephanides.

Stephanides also lost his cellphone reception on the way down the mountain, and following his rescue, told lifesavers he had fallen at least 20 times on the steep slopes and was unable to get up the last time he fell.

Making matters worse, Stephanides’ colleagues had inexplicably collected belongings left in a boulder field to mark the path down, officials said.

When his colleagues didn’t hear from him, they reported Stephanides missing at 9 p.m., some eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent, officials said.

Rescue teams found Stephanides in a gully near a drainage creek and carried him down the mountain on a gurney, officials said. He was and taken to a hospital in stable condition, officials said.

Rescuers said Stephanides was “phenomenally lucky” that the weather cleared on Saturday and he regained enough cellphone service to call 911.

“All of the teams that were involved are all volunteer rescuers,” Andres said. “It’s tiring, but it’s rewarding when we go out and find people and are able to reunite them with their loved ones. It’s fantastic.”

ABC News’ Laryssa Demkiw and Emme Marchese contributed to this report.

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(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The wheels of justice turn slowly, and it’s not cheap to keep them grinding.

Still more than nine months before Bryan Kohberger’s capital murder trial is scheduled to begin — and still without a definitive answer on where in Idaho it will be held — local government leaders in the area where four students were stabbed to death in 2022 do know one thing: The trial will cost taxpayers a lot of money, so the county requires a cash infusion, officials have decided — wherever it ends up taking place.

To that end, Latah County District Court has been granted a significant increase for next year: The county’s Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved boosting the trial expense budget to $150,000 for fiscal year 2025 — more than 40 times their 2024 budget of $3,500.

It’s not the first time the financial impact of the case has come up. In 2023, prosecutors leading the case against Kohberger requested a $135,000 budget. Even then, they said, their part could cost more than eight times what’s typically allotted annually.

Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.

After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him in December 2022 at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

His lawyers have said Kohberger was driving around alone and not near the crime scene on the night the killings occurred, and say they’ll have expert cellphone analysis to back that up.

The trial is currently set for June 2025.

Kohberger could face the death penalty, if convicted.

With the pretrial process creeping forward, the financial line items associated with the case continue to accrue.

Once the trial kicks off, according to the approved Latah County budget, expenses could include travel and lodging costs for jurors and bailiffs. Since jurors in the complex and high-profile case will need supplies, including meals, the court also requested a large increase in its jury supplies budget: from $3,500 to $50,000.

The approved budget to cover witness fees is also substantially higher than last year’s, primarily to pay for the travel costs of witnesses scheduled to testify in court, according to the budget.

The commissioners also approved $20,000 in contracts and labor in preparation for a trial in Latah County.

If the trial is held in Latah County, this money would be used to hire extra workers for jury management, according to Latah County Clerk Julie Fry.

But whether the trial will stay in Latah County remains to be seen, and has become a point of pretrial contention. Kohberger’s lawyers argue the “pressure to convict” their client in the area showed to be “so severe,” those jurors couldn’t possibly be impartial. In fact, they argue, the “mob mentality” of the tightknit community is the “exact reason” the trial should be moved to another area of Idaho, where it could be heard by people with less of an emotional connection to what has been nearly two years and counting of news coverage about it.

“The traumatized town of Moscow is understandably filled with deeply held prejudgment opinions of guilt,” Kohberger attorney Elisa Massoth said in a recent court filing in their push to move the trial to Ada County, and the state capital of Boise.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, contend that people in Boise have TVs and newspapers too, so moving it would be futile — and the focus instead should be on “crafting remedial measures” to ensure a fair and impartial jury can be seated right where they are.

Both sides have attempted to cite frugality to support their opposing positions.

“Any consideration related to costs of prosecution and defense make Ada County a logical choice with the largest airport in the state,” Kohberger attorney Anne Taylor said in a July filing. “There will be a number of witnesses traveling into Idaho and Ada County is a more cost-effective option,” she said, adding that keeping the trial in more far-flung Moscow “will require most witnesses to travel to Spokane, Washington and rent a car to drive to the Latah County Courthouse.”

In arguing against the change of venue, prosecutors have also pointed to court coffers.

“The transfer of trial to Ada County would come at an extraordinary cost,” prosecuting attorney Bill Thompson wrote in a filing earlier this month. “Whether out-of-state witnesses fly into Lewiston, Spokane, or even Boise, the cost of rental vehicles for a handful of out-of-state witnesses is only a fraction of the total cost picture.”

Were the trial to move to Boise, he said, the need for more witness hotel rentals would skyrocket, as would pulling police and emergency dispatch witnesses from their work “for days, rather than hours, creating a ripple effect of inconvenience.”

“While Defense counsel took this case on a contract basis and will have to travel whether the trial is had in Ada County or in Latah County, the same is not true for the Court, the court reporter, the court clerk, and the Court’s staff attorney,” Thompson said.

“The State, which has the burden of proof and must deal with the logistics of juggling witnesses and trial exhibits would have to relocate both of its lead attorneys, as well as its support and victim services staff, for weeks and likely months,” Thompson continued. “This would come at great expense for lodging, transportation, and per diem.”

A hearing on whether to change the trial’s venue is set for Thursday.

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(WASHINGTON) — The FBI continued to mishandle tips regarding sexual abuse against children even after the agency promised reforms in the wake of its botched handling of assault allegations against former USA Olympics gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, according to a Justice Department watchdog report released Thursday.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s findings were a result of an extensive audit undertaken in the 16 months after his office released its scathing 2021 report that detailed the FBI’s failures in acting on multiple credible abuse claims against Nassar by athletes under his care. While the report details how the FBI updated its policies and training to handle such tips in the wake of the Nassar report, it found multiple instances where bureau employees failed to properly act on the allegations.

Of nearly 4,000 child sexual abuse cases opened by the FBI between October 2021 and February 2023, the IG’s office reviewed 327 and found 42 cases where investigators had to flag it to the FBI for their “immediate attention,” according to the report.

For those 13% of the cases audited by the IG, the report said, investigators had concerns that varied from a lack of recent investigative activity or referrals to appropriate agencies, leads that were not properly followed up on and, in some instances, clear violations of FBI policy regarding handling sexual abuse claims.

In one specific instance identified in the report, FBI agents failed to follow up on an allegation involving abuse against a minor by a registered sex offender, which led to the offender victimizing at least one additional minor “for a period of approximately 15 months,” the report said.

“After we raised this incident to the FBI’s attention, the FBI took appropriate action, and the subject was indicted on federal charges,” Horowitz said in a taped video statement.

The report further found significant issues regarding FBI agents’ obligation to report allegations of sexual abuse against children to various entities immediately after they are received.

In 47% of incidents reviewed by the IG, they found no evidence that FBI employees complied with mandatory reporting requirements to state and local law enforcement agencies, and in 50% of cases, they found no evidence that they reported the allegations to social services agencies, according to the report.

“Additionally, we found that FBI employees didn’t always comply with FBI policies put in place to protect victims,” the report said. “For example, in the incidents we reviewed, we found 40 percent of the active child sexual abuse allegations did not include evidence that the FBI responded within 24 hours.”

A central issue identified in the IG report was a surge in recent years of claims of child sexual abuse that have caused a strain on FBI resources.

One agent who spoke to the IG said they had been assigned approximately 60 such cases and that the risk of them “falling through the cracks” was in large part due to high agent workloads. But, according to the IG, FBI Headquarters denied requests from all but one of 15 field offices that requested an increase in the number of special agents dedicated to investigating child abuse threats in 2022, and further denied requests from seven of those field offices when they again appealed for help.

In a letter responding to the report released Thursday, the FBI said they “recognize further action is necessary to ensure our corrective measures have the full intended effect of improving the FBI’s handling of allegations of hands-on sex offenses.”

But the bureau also argued that “most of the incidents” flagged by the IG’s office appeared to reflect failures in documentation rather than clear failures in proper investigative actions being taken.

“Ensuring the safety and security of children is not just a priority for the FBI; it is a solemn duty that we are committed to fulfilling with the highest standards,” the FBI said in a statement. “The FBI’s efforts combating crimes against children are among the most critical and demanding undertakings we do. The FBI deeply values the trust the public places in us to protect the most vulnerable members of society. We are committed to maintaining the public’s trust by implementing the necessary improvements to ensure the important changes we made to our Violent Crimes Against Children program in 2018 and 2019 have the intended effect of promoting the highest level of compliance and effectiveness.”

Crimes against children are among the top priorities for the FBI, but the bureau continues to be challenged by an increasing number of sexual abuse tips and has previously failed to take necessary investigative measures, an FBI official acknowledged to reporters on Thursday.

“It’s staggering,” the official said, referring to the growing number of reports as an “overwhelming situation.”

“Any mistake or deficiency is unacceptable and the FBI recognizes that,” the official said.

Thursday’s report is likely to draw further criticism of the bureau and FBI Director Christopher Wray, who in the wake of the Nassar report issued a personal apology to the gymnasts abused by Nassar.

“I am sorry that so many people let you down over and over again and I am especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed, and that is inexcusable,” Wray said in September 2021 congressional testimony. “It never should have happened, and we are doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said in a statement Thursday that he intends to hold a hearing with the FBI in the coming weeks.

“The FBI’s failures enabling Larry Nassar’s abuse of young victims continue to remain a stain on the Bureau,” Durbin said. “Today’s report shows that new policies implemented by the FBI to address these egregious failures are effectively being ignored, leading to similar abuses as seen in the Nassar investigation. It’s shameful that the FBI is continuing to fail victims.”

Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 in connection with crimes against several victims and was sentenced to 60 years behind bars for child pornography and other charges. He again pleaded guilty in 2018 and was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years for multiple counts of sexual assault of minors.

ABC News’ Quinn Owen contributed to this report.

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(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The suspect in the murder of four University of Idaho students, Bryan Kohberger, is in court Thursday as the judge weighs whether to change the venue for his trial.

Kohberger’s lawyers hope to move the trial to a different county, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses the college town of Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity.

Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found that the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” the venue couldn’t possibly be impartial.

The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, where Kohberger’s lawyers suggested the trial be moved.

“The traumatized town of Moscow is understandably filled with deeply held prejudgment opinions of guilt,” defense attorney Elisa Massoth said in a filing this month.

The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.

Prosecutors argued in a filing this month that the defense “failed to establish that a fair and impartial trial cannot be held in Latah County.”

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said in a statement last week that, if the case stayed in Latah County, “I firmly believe people would be able to set aside any personal feelings they have … set aside any information they may have read or heard … and make a determination of guilt or not guilty based on the evidence presented in the courtroom and deliberate according to the instructions provided to them.”

The trial is scheduled to start on June 2, 2025, and run until Aug. 29, 2025. Judge John Judge said in June that if the venue changes, the trial date would still hold.

Kohberger is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were all brutally murdered during the break-in.

Kohberger, who was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the crime, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.

A not guilty plea was entered on Kohberger’s behalf. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik and Julie Scott contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — When Jill Antares Hunkler purchased land in Belmont County, Ohio, in 2007, she never envisioned her home would be surrounded by 78 oil and gas fracking wells a decade later, she said.

“I wanted to build my home where I had roots,” Hunkler, a seventh-generation Ohio Valley resident, told ABC News. “It was a place where I could live a more traditional, natural life.”

Hunkler’s three-acre property at the headwaters of the Captina Creek Watershed was one of hundreds in the area that she said became a magnet for fracking.

Her property sits on the Utica and Marcellus Shales in the Appalachian Basin, geologic formations known to hold large reserves of oil and natural gas.

As of April 2024, the Marcellus Shale contained about 120 million barrels of oil, while the Utica Shale contained 2.3 million barrels, according to the United States Geological Survey.

There are 1,625 fracking wells in Belmont Country this year, which marks a 25% increase from 2023, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which oversees unitization orders in the state.

Hunkler said when oil and gas representatives called “landmen” came knocking on her door, calling her home and sending repeated notices, she learned of the state’s unitization laws. The fate of her land was largely out of her hands, she said.

“To be perfectly honest, it makes me cry even now,” Hunkler said.

What is unitization?

Unitization is the consolidation of multiple land parcels into a single operational unit for fracking, according to ODNR.

Instead of drilling multiple wells on separate properties, which can be inefficient, unitization combines adjacent properties over a pool to allow for a more coordinated approach to extracting oil or gas.

Because it’s multiple properties, most neighbors in the area must apply to lease their land, according to state law.

In Ohio, 65% of property owners in a project area must sign an application to lease their property for drilling before going forward, according to ODNR.

This leaves a population of dissenting or “non-participatory” landowners forced into fracking in the area, even if it’s not on their property.

Unitization has been legal in Ohio since 1965, however, the last decade has seen unitization orders surge to meet fracking demands.

The ODNR enacted 112 unitization orders in 2022 and nearly 100 in 2023, according to ODNR records.

Before 2021, which saw 73 unitization orders, ODNR enacted less than 50 orders per year between 2012 and 2020, according to records.

Negotiating a lease

Proponents believe fracking brings jobs back to the region, which historically relied on coal and steel manufacturing, and gives residents the opportunity to make passive income by leasing land.

“Natural gas production has been tremendously profitable for Ohio,” state Sen. George Lang and two researchers said in a 2023 press release posted on the Ohio Senate website. “The shale revolution has been the greatest driver of the state’s economic progress since the late 1990s. Ohio now ranks sixth among states in natural gas production, exporting to our neighbors and the world.”

Ohio law states landowners must make “just and reasonable” compensation for leasing sites, which can vary based on location, under state law.

In 2024, some local drillers reported paying landowners an average of $500 per acre, but lease bonus payments in southeast Ohio can range from $3,000–$6,000 per acre, according to McCleery Law Firm, which provides consultation and legal services to landowners considering entering, or impacted by, a leasing agreement.

“It is also an area where landowners are chronically exploited,” the firm says in their “Landowner’s Guide.”

“This is because landmen usually offer significantly less per acre if they suspect you lack knowledge of the market. Without knowledge of fair market value, an increase of two thousand dollars per acre might seem advantageous, when in reality, the starting offer was simply egregiously low,” the firm claims.

Property owners also receive royalties on the gas produced, which typically begins at 12.5%, according to ODNR.

Echoing Hunkler’s story, a study published this month in Nature Energy reviewed detailed records of landmen’s dealings with 37 property owners in Ohio to investigate how they may be disadvantaged in lease negotiations.

The records spanned from January 2014 and April 2021, which saw a boom of fracking increases in the state, according to the study.

Researchers found that companies used persistent and personal strategies to overcome landowner reluctance, such as repeated in-person visits, calls and in some cases, contacting their family members and neighbors.

The study cited a log of contact between a landman and a property owner in Noble County, Ohio.

“When their calls go unanswered, they send letters. When those are returned with ‘REFUSED’ handwritten across them, landmen drive to her house. When she refuses to answer the door, they speak to her neighbours and family members,” according to the study.

When property owners refused all requests, the study found widespread use of compulsory unitization.

“In roughly 40% of the wells drilled in Ohio, compulsory unitization applications were used because voluntary consent from landowners was not obtained,” according to the study.

In a statement to ABC News, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said the role of the agency is “to follow and administer the law, as written.”

“The Division does not have jurisdiction to regulate landmen,” ODNR said.

Changed way of life

“People that don’t live in southeast Ohio have no concept of what it’s like,” Randi Pokladnik, a lifelong resident of the Ohio River Valley and retired research chemist, told ABC News about fracking in the area.

“It sounds like a jet engine in the middle of the night and you can smell the emissions. It’s a constant barrage of sand trucks and fracking trucks with brine in them,” Pokladnik said.

She unaffectionately calls the nightly traffic the “brine truck parade.”

Pokladnik and her husband own property in Tappan, Ohio, and despite denying leasing requests from oil and gas representatives for over a decade, in February, Pokladnik’s property was “force pooled” to participate without their consent.

“It made me sick to my stomach when I first got the notice in the mail that they were going to be doing this,” Pokladnik said.

“This is like the ultimate slap in the face for somebody who’s an environmentalist,” she added.

Environmental and health effects

In 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency found scientific evidence that fracking can potentially impact drinking water resources under some circumstances.

Chemicals used for fracking may travel through cracks in the rock into an underground drinking water source and contamination could also occur if a well is improperly installed, if chemicals are spilled from trucks or tanks or if flowback is not effectively contained, according to the agency.

The Yale School of Public Health found that fracking has led to heightened concerns about its impact on the environment and human health due to wastewater and greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to health and environmental concerns, Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil & Gas Association said companies work to ensure the safety of the properties they work on and the record stands for itself.

Speaking about conventional fracking wells Brundrett told Energy News Network, “The fact that there have been only three major incidents since 2018 is a testament to the industry’s rigorous safety standards and practices,” Brundrett said.

“Considering that only .004% of Ohio oil and gas operations have had a major reportable incident during that timeframe, I would put our industry’s safety numbers against any other manual industry in Ohio,” he added.

The incidents include a gas leak, crude oil spill and a combustor fire, according to the outlet.

ODNR says it has addressed water well complaints since 1983 and none of the investigations revealed groundwater quality problems due to fracking, the department said in a fracking fact sheet.

However, Pokladnik believes that the effects of fracking in the Ohio River Valley are not in a bubble and should be considered by everyone.

“There’s not a dome over these well pads and everything that we do here is eventually going to cause more climate change,” Pokladnik said.

“So even though you’re not living here and you won’t have to worry about drinking contaminated water or breathing these emissions directly, it is affecting your life,” she added.

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(NEW YORK) — Life-threatening heat spread across the eastern half of the U.S. this week, first hitting the Midwest, then the Northeast and now the South.

Chicago hit 99 degrees on Tuesday, breaking the city’s daily record of 97 degrees. Some schools in the area closed early due to the weather.

On Wednesday, the heat moved east. Record highs were shattered in Washington, D,C., which reached 101 degrees, and Greenwood, Mississippi, which reached 103 degrees.

The final tennis major of the year, the U.S. Open, which is underway in New York City, operated under an “extreme weather policy,” with stadium roofs partially closed and extended breaks for players.

The heat has now left the Midwest and Northeast.

On Thursday, the South is in the bull’s-eye, with record highs possible in cities including Nashville, Tennessee; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Louisville, Kentucky.

The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — is forecast to soar to 100 degrees in Washington, D.C., and Charleston, South Carolina; 102 degrees in Nashville; Richmond, Virginia; Birmingham, Alabama; and Charlotte, North Carolina; 103 in Raleigh and Charleston, West Virginia; and a scorching 105 in Jackson, Mississippi.

Friday will bring one more day of record heat. By the weekend, cooler air will move in.

There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.

Last year marked the most heat-related deaths in the U.S. on record, according to JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.

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(WASHINGTON) — D.C. police officer Wayne David died on Wednesday evening after he suffered an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound while trying to recover a weapon from a storm drain, police have announced.

Officers were responding to reports of a suspicious vehicle when a man jumped out of a car, ran onto the I-295 highway and placed the gun inside a storm drain, ABC News has learned. The suspect then fled the scene on the back of a motorcycle.

When police then tried to retrieve the weapon, it went off, striking David — a 25-year veteran of the police force — in the upper torso. Other officers rendered aid and David was transferred to a local hospital.

Executive Assistant Chief of D.C. Police Jeffery Caroll told reporters earlier in the day that David — a crime scene search officer — was “trained to recover evidence and firearms,” and had recovered “hundreds of guns” in his career.

Pamela A. Smith, the D.C. chief of police, said in a statement: “Our hearts are heavy tonight after the tragic loss of one of our own.”

“Investigator Wayne David, a veteran MPD officer, lost his life while serving in the line of duty. There are few words to express the hurt and pain that Officer David’s family and the entire MPD is feeling right now,” Smith said.

“Investigator David was the epitome of a great officer. He was a dedicated and highly respected member of the department, and this is a tremendous loss for all of us,” she continued.

“For more than 25 years, Investigator David dedicated his life to protecting and safeguarding the District of Columbia. He served with passion and honor and had the utmost respect of his peers,” Smith added.

“I will be forever grateful for Investigator David’s service to the Metropolitan Police Department and his life will never be forgotten,” the statement read.

Police are still searching for the suspect who ditched the gun, and said there is no indication that the man knew the motorcyclist whose vehicle he escaped on. The department has released an image of the suspect.

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