State says it already has seismic data for next Vienna injection well
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
When Kleese Development Associates finishes drilling its newest Vienna brine-injection well on state Route 193 in the next week or so, the state will review the work and decide if the company can begin commercial injection.
That “most likely” will include a requirement for the company to conduct seismic monitoring to determine whether injections are causing earthquakes, said Eric Heis, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
But in 2013, before American Water Management Services had drilled its two injection wells off state Route 169 (North Main Street) in Weathersfield Township, it already was monitoring its site for earthquakes with equipment the state ordered it to provide.
ODNR geologist Tom Tomastik said at the time that officials believed the most important thing the state could do to prevent injection-well-induced earthquakes was “proactively doing seismic monitoring” for deep injection wells such as the deeper one in Weathersfield before such wells were drilled, during pressure testing and for six to eight months after the injection had begun.
The Weathersfield injection well and the newest Vienna well are remarkably similar in terms of their depth and the intended rock formations used for brine disposal, yet seismic monitoring has not yet been ordered for the Vienna well.
Heis said the reason no seismic monitoring had been ordered for the new KDA well, which is being drilled near the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, is because the well “is close to multiple ODNR seismic-monitoring instruments.”
For this reason, “the background [information on seismic activity] for the area is well established,” Heis said.
State officials said in 2013 that they had begun requiring seismic monitoring for some injection wells because of the earthquakes that had occurred at the Northstar injection well in Youngstown in 2011, including a 4.0 quake on New Year’s Eve. That well was drilled 9,184 feet deep April 13, 2010.
State officials said they also had stopped allowing injection companies to drill into the Precambrian rock formation that the Northstar well used.
In 2013, the ODNR’s then-spokesman, Mark Bruce, said state officials believed the reason the Northstar well caused earthquakes was that it had injected waste into the Precambrian formation, about 9,100 feet below the surface .
But more recently, state officials started wondering if there was another reason for the quakes – possibly a hidden geological fault energized by both the Youngstown well on Ohio Works Drive and the Weathersfield well seven miles to the northwest.
This month’s Ohio Oil and Gas Commission decision keeping the American Water Management Services Weathersfield well closed pending further evaluation said testimony at the AWMS appeal hearing in March suggested this link.
“Testimony at the hearing revealed that it is entirely possible that the [AWMS] well has ‘tapped into’ the same geologic fault system that plagued the Northstar 1 well,” the decision said.
Meanwhile, KDA’s permit for the Route 193 injection well allows KDA to drill into the same geological formation as the AWMS well.
KDA’s permit allows KDA to drill to 9,100 feet deep, into the Knox and Mount Simon geological formations.
AWMS was allowed to drill 9,100 feet deep into the Knox and Mount Simon geological formations, according to its permit. Those formations are above the Precambrian formation.
In reality, the well only traveled 8,502 feet deep, the Oil and Gas Commission clarified in this month’s AWMS decision.
The newest Vienna well is 9.7 miles from the closed Northstar well, according to Mapquest.com.
ODNR’s current spokesman, Heis, said ODNR has a process for determining whether the newest KDA well is allowed to begin commercial operation – such as inspecting the well casings for flaws.
Heis said the ODNR welcomes public input on proposed injection wells on its website even though there is no “official comment period” open to the public for the KDA well.
Ohio law does mandate that a public-comment period take place before granting a permit to drill, Heis said. KDA received permission to drill more than two years ago.
The process still open to anyone who would object to the KDA well being allowed to begin commercial injection is an appeal to the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, Heis noted.
State officials, including criminal investigators, still are in the midst of an investigation into the 2,000-gallon oil spill in April at KDA’s facility on Sodom Hutchings Road in Vienna that fouled ponds, a stream and wetlands.
One person who would like to object to KDA opening another injection well is Heidi Brown, Vienna Township trustee.
Brown says the ODNR and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation have been so secretive about the KDA spill and what caused it that local officials have no way to gauge whether KDA should be stopped from operating injection wells in the future.
“It could be really, really bad. They’re not telling us anything,” she said, noting that it’s been nearly five months since it happened. “When you say nothing at all, you think the worst.”