Many of the drilling and production leases signed by Noble County landowners were largely written and negotiated by Jennifer Garrison, a lawyer from Marietta and former three-term Democratic state representative. Garrison’s clients negotiate as an association of landowners controlling thousands of acres in a leasing block. Her leases contain provisions for testing before and after drilling occurs to make sure that none of the chemicals used in the production process have contaminated drinking water. The leases bar energy companies from drawing water for fracking from any water source on the leaseholder’s land — provisions that go beyond existing Ohio regulations. “My job is to represent landowners,” Garrison says. “The mineral lease is the law of the land. We try to help landowners get what they want in their leases. And they wanted to make sure their water was safe.”