Keeping an eye on the wells

Keeping an eye on the wells

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Gov. John Kasich’s administration has fashioned new and apparently tough regulations governing injection of drilling wastes into deep disposal wells.

Impelling the proposal were earthquakes in Northeast Ohio probably caused by brine injections into such a well near Youngstown. A Natural Resources Department spokesman told the Associated Press that waste injected into the well “lubricated a previous unmapped (earthquake) fault” and contributed to seismic activity.

The additional regulations, announced March 9 by state Natural Resources Director James Zehringer, would, among other features, ban the drilling of new Class II disposal wells within areas of Ohio known to be underlain with geological faults. The new rules also would require pressure monitors on wells, automatic shut-off devices and tracking all the fluids dumped in a given well.

The rules seem reasonable, though they may not prove sufficient: Continuing studies could compel even tighter regulation. Meanwhile, oil and gas exploration in Ohio and Pennsylvania is likely to require more, not fewer, waste-disposal wells.

Given all of that, Kasich and the General Assembly must also restore funding for the Ohio Geological Survey’s seismic monitoring.