Several conservation groups are suing two federal agencies over plans to permit fracking in Ohio’s only national forest.

Since December, federal officials have auctioned the oil and gas leasing rights for more than 1,800 acres of the Wayne National Forest’s Marietta Unit in southeast Ohio.

A lawsuit filed in federal district court Tuesday contends that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately analyze potential threats to public health, endangered species and the climate before moving ahead with a December sale that auctioned off more than 700 acres of the Marietta unit.

“(They) were pretty adamant that they wanted to open up the Wayne,” said Nathan Johnson, public lands director at the Ohio Environmental Council, which filed the lawsuit along with the Center for Biological Diversity, Heartwood and the Sierra Club. “This lawsuit was inevitable in that aspect.”

The groups are asking that the federal agencies void the leases and contend the sales were approved using outdated environmental studies, violating the National Environmental Policy Act.

There already are more than 1,200 conventional oil and gas wells across the 240,000-acre forest.

Environmental groups have long fought to protect Ohio’s only national forest from fracking, a process that involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to fracture rock formations and release trapped oil and gas.

“It will be one of the single largest sources of disruption to the forest, to wildlife, to recreation,” Johnson said. Forest Service and Land Management "refuse to acknowledge or examine that information because they already had this leasing plan in their mind.

"The agencies are essentially looking the other way and pretending the impacts don’t exist.”

The groups also filed an appeal with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, challenging the Bureau of Land Management's most recent March oil and gas lease sale of 1,147 acres in the forest.

In a press release announcing the results of the March auction, which is not part of Tuesday’s lawsuit, the bureau maintained its position on oil and gas development.

“The BLM’s policy is to promote oil and gas development if it meets the guidelines and regulations set forth by … laws and policies passed by the U.S. Congress; in partial fulfillment of the Administration’s America First Energy Plan which includes development of fossil fuels and coal,” the March release said.

Spokespeople from both federal agencies say they do not comment on litigation.

Shawn Bennett, executive vice president with the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said saying that the lease sale failed to account for environmental impacts is “patently untrue.”

“(The suit) is simply another attempt to halt the nation’s development of our natural resources,” Bennett said in an email statement. “As with any well, oil and gas producers will go through rigorous state and federal permitting processes to ensure that their activities are protective of health, safety and the environment before they are able to drill.”

mrenault@dispatch.com

@MarionRenault