The scenario concocted for the emergency training exercise Dec. 11 at the Athens County Faigrounds did include a planned attack by a make-believe eco-terrorist group, though details of the scenario seem straight out of an action-adventure thriller.

Dan Pfeiffer, chair of one of the local emergency agencies that planned the training exercise, outlined its details in a short interview Wednesday. The exercise involved an imaginary biotoxin attack at an Ohio University sporting event, he said.

Formally called a Weapons of Mass Destruction/Hazardous Materials exercise, the training event was managed locally by the Athens County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) and the Athens County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Pfeiffer chairs the latter committee.

The training also involved local and regional law enforcement, as well as the Ohio National Guard's 52nd Civil Support Team for Weapons of Mass Destruction based at Rickenbacker Air National Guard base in Columbus.

Everything went well, according to officials in charge of the local emergency agencies, except for the choice of the villains in the imaginary terrorist attack eco-terrorists virulently opposed to "fracking" for gas and oil.

The day after the event, Pfeiffer and Fred Davis, director of the Athens County EMA, apologized in a written news release for the choice of scenario in a terrorist incident training exercise, acknowledging that law-abiding fracking opponents are active in the county.

"The scenario caused distress to people who have spent countless hours striving to protect the environment and our citizens," a release from the Athens County EMA said. "The role of the (EMA) and LEPC is to protect our citizens (from) natural as well as man-made disasters. We strive to bring our county together and our standard is to remain neutral in local issues. We fell short of that standard."

The issue was brought to the attention of the Athens Commissioners by Roxanne Groff, a member of the Athens County Fracking Action Network and a former county commissioner.

Groff attended the commissioners' meeting last Thursday to speak about a proposed new fracking waste injection well. She said Saturday that she had called Davis and Pfeiffer to express her concerns earlier on Thursday, Dec. 12.

On Wednesday, asked about specifics of the training scenario, Pfeiffer said the simulation started out as a law-enforcement bust of an illegal meth lab. Upon inspecting the premises, he added, sheriff's deputies found a secondary lab, which had been used to concoct biotoxins for an intended terrorist attack on OU's Convocation Center during a crowded sporting event.

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Exercise involved plans for imaginary biotoxin attack on OU Convo