Company seeks to resume work at Weathersfield injection well

By Marc Kovac

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

American Water Management Services Inc. asked a state panel Wednesday to allow it to resume operations at a Trumbull County injection well after seismic activity near the site last year.

The state ordered the company to cease operations at the Weathersfield Township site after two minor quakes in July and August. The company appealed that order and wants the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission to allow it to restart oilfield waste injections, though at a lower rate.

“On occasions, even government officials with good intentions exceed their authority or act unreasonable,” said John Keller, legal counsel for AWMS. “We believe that this commission’s primary function is to establish a check and balance over the actions of the government, and we ask you to revise the orders to allow for a phased start-up [and] further monitoring. ...”

The state has countered that it is developing criteria for dealing with injection wells and seismic activity. Legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources also voiced concern over increasing seismic events in Weathersfield.

“We had these two seismic events, and they occurred very close to the injection activities,” said Brett Kravitz, legal counsel for the state, noting schools, homes and commercial development near the wells. “... The consequences here are serious consequences. ... If something happens, if there’s greater seismic events in the future, they’re the ones that are going to feel the effect.”

The Oil and Gas Commission listened to testimony from a company representative, seismologist, petroleum engineer and the head of the ODNR’s Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management during a hearing that lasted more than eight hours Wednesday.

The commission will consider the testimony and other evidence and announce a decision later.

AWMS invested more than $5 million and spent more than two years seeking the appropriate permits, drilling and preparing two injections wells in Weathersfield, Keller said. Those wells began operating about a year ago, one injecting into a shallower formation, one in a deeper one.

A few months later, seismic activity occurred in the vicinity, with a magnitude 1.7 event in late July and 2.1 about 30 days later. In September, the state ordered the company to cease injections at the wells, pending further investigation.

A new study by Miami University seismologists notes that the quake’s epicenter was “almost directly beneath” the deeper injection well, with seismic activity dwindling after operations there ceased.

The state has allowed the company to resume operations at the shallower well. Stephen Kilper, AWMS vice president, said Wednesday that well accounts for about 5 percent of the company’s revenues, while the deeper well accounts for the rest.

“We have been losing money ever since we shut down,” he said, adding that the company is facing layoffs and cutbacks. There are four employees who work at the site and another administrative employee connected to the facility.

The company is asking the state to allow it to restart injections at the well, only at a reduced volume, with increased monitoring for any resulting seismic activity. AWMS has submitted plans to the state for the restart of the well.

“Everyone agrees that decisions of this nature are intended to be made on the basis of science,” Keller said. “ ... When the well is shut down, no data can be obtained.”

Among other arguments, the company alleges the state did not have authority to shut down the wells. According to documents, “Significantly, the statute authorizes the chief to take enforcement if there is a violation of either a permit condition or section of the chief’s order. Here, the chief’s orders do not even allege that AWMS has violated the permit or any other aspect of Ohio law.”

The company also alleges that the seismic activity was minor.

“These were small events,” Keller said. “There are huge energy differences between what occurred and what is likely to cause any kind of damage.”

Michael Hastings, a seismologist who has provided monitors for the ODNR and the company, said it would take a magnitude of 2.5 or greater for seismic activity to be generally noticed by the public and 3.5 or higher to do damage to structure.

The level of activity recorded at the Weathersfield site isn’t unusual, he added, noting that mining or quarry explosions can produce comparable results.

“Personally, I wouldn’t be concerned ... of the hazard,” he said of the lower magnitude recordings.

Asked what he thought of the ODNR’s orders to shut down the injection well, Hastings replied: “I don’t think it was scientifically necessary. ... I would say that most every injection well … will produce seismic activity, if it’s monitored properly.”

Richard Simmers, chief of the ODNR’s Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management, recounted seismic activity in the Youngstown area that occurred before the Weathersfield injection well was operational.

Those quakes, later tied to a Northstar well in Youngstown, began in early 2011, at magnitudes of around 2 and increased by the end of the year to a magnitude 4 quake. The Northstar well is about seven miles from the Weathersfield site, Simmers said.

“If we would have issued a permit [to AWMS] knowing then what we know now, it’s very likely we would have applied additional conditions to the permit,” Simmers said. “Or it’s conceivable that we may have denied the permit.”

In a report submitted to the Oil and Gas Commission, Simmers explained the correlations between the Weathersfield injection well and the seismic activity in the area, and he defended the state’s decision to order activities at the well to cease.

“Once you have an induced seismic event, there’s very real potential that you can have additional seismic events,” he said.

“And although nobody can say for sure, there is a potential that the magnitude of those seismic events can increase. We saw that in the Northstar [well].”

Simmers said injection activities at the Weathersfield site should not continue until state officials complete their work on review criteria and guidelines to handle injection wells that are connected to seismic activity.