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Mayor seeks injection-wells moratorium
YOUNGSTOWN
Mayor Charles Sammarone will ask city-council members today to support a moratorium on injection wells in Youngstown after the 11th earthquake in the past 10 months shook the city.
Saturday’s earthquake, like the 10 others since March 17, 2011, was centered close to a D&L Energy Inc. brine-injection well. The quake came one day after the state told D&L to cease operations at the well on Ohio Works Drive that state officials and others say likely caused all 11 incidents, with magnitudes of 2.1 to 2.8.
It’s up to the state to impose moratoriums, but Sammarone said he wants city officials to officially voice their concerns.
After Saturday’s quake, the largest of the 11 with a 4.0 magnitude, the state also ordered D&L to keep four inactive wells, within a five-mile radius of the Ohio Works well, closed.
The moratorium won’t be lifted “until we can do a deeper, thorough analysis,” said Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich. “There is no time frame. They will not go back on line until we can rule out” the connection between the well and the earthquakes.
The well injects brine, a byproduct of fracking, about 9,300 feet into the ground. D&L isn’t fracking at the location.
Fracking is a process in which water, chemicals and sand are blasted into rocks thousands of feet underground to extract natural gas and oil. Injection wells are the opposite — it uses the fluid left over from fracking and injects it deep into the ground.
Sammarone invited state Rep. Robert F. Hagan, who’s called for a moratorium on the wells for several months, to discuss the issue Tuesday.
“There’s too many questions that are unanswered,” Sammarone said of the wells. “This particular well is creating problems. People feel unsafe. My whole neighborhood felt [Saturday’s earthquake]. I thought my house was going down. Stuff fell off the shelves, and the whole house shook. I’m going to take out earthquake insurance.”
“The state took over drilling, and we’re not kept informed,” he said. “I’ve gotten more information in the past two days from The Vindicator on this than I have from anyone else.”
Sammarone, a Democrat, wants council to support a moratorium of about 30 days on injection wells in the city so the state and experts can investigate this issue and determine if the well is causing the earthquakes.
Sammarone wants officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to meet with city council’s public utilities committee next week to discuss the issue.
Councilman Michael Ray, D-4th, chairman of council’s public utilities committee, said he supports a moratorium.
“We need a study to see if this well is the cause of 11 earthquakes,” he said. “It would be good for ODNR to give us a better understanding of this.”
Kasich, a Republican, says 177 deep-injection wells have operated in the state for decades without any problems.
Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Council, a trade association, said “a situation like the one in question [in] Youngstown is very rare.”
Fleming praised ODNR for acting “with appropriate due caution when ordering a suspension” of the well activity in light of the earthquakes. He also pointed out that there aren’t problems with other injection wells in Ohio.
Fleming also said there’s a major difference between injection wells and fracking, and that there is no evidence connecting the latter to earthquakes.
For its part, Warren-based Patriot Water Treatment LLC issued a statement Tuesday night claiming it had “documented the earthquakes and potential causes in a meeting on Oct. 6 and identified methods that would reduce the possibility of earthquakes,” adding, “numerous industry leaders, elected officials and USEPA attended the meeting.”
Patriot treats low-salinity, high total-dissolved-solids water from fracking, but its brine-water permit is set to expire next month, and OEPA has said it will not renew it on the basis that “brine,” in its broad definition, cannot be disposed of through waste-water treatment plants.
Noting it had “operated without incident for over a year” Patriot reiterated it “only accepts only low-salinity water from oil and natural gas drilling sites” and contrasted its process with injection wells.
“Patriot’s innovative process cleans, filters, and treats the water, making it safe for re-introduction into Ohio’s surface water system,” according to the statement. “In contrast, injection wells [between 4,000 to 10,000 feet deep] are anchored in porous stone where untreated water can be permanently disposed.”
Hagan, of Youngstown, D-60th, said he wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and independent geologists and seismologists to investigate injection wells and fracking to see if they’re safe.
“I’m not against drilling, but we’re moving too fast,” Hagan said.
Also, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Public Utility Committee, called Tuesday for the Ohio Senate to hold a public hearing in the Mahoning Valley with ODNR and Ohio EPA officials on injection wells and the potential connection to the earthquakes.
“I spoke with many residents over the holiday weekend who are very concerned for the safety of their family, homes, and property,” said Schiavoni, of Canfield, D-33rd. “These are legitimate concerns that must be addressed in a timely manner.”
David Betras, an attorney and Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, said the earthquakes and the likelihood that the injection well caused them could result in a class-action lawsuit.
None of the earthquakes caused significant damage, but D&L officials knew the potential connection and didn’t stop injecting at the well even after several quakes occurred, he said.