Fracking takes center stage

COLUMBUS

There’s one message that has been heard loud and clear at the Statehouse: The good people of the Mahoning Valley are tired of earthquakes and expect their public officials to do everything in their power to prevent future fracking-induced tremors.

Companies that pump massive amounts of salty oilfield waste into the ground now are required to install seismic monitors to track earth movement.

When those devices record quakes — even small ones — the state can step in and shut down operations until it can assess the situation and devise plans to prevent additional seismic events.

Which brings us to the nearly nine-hour hearing that took place in Columbus a few days ago, before a state panel that is considering an appeal to restart operations at a Trumbull County injection well where a couple of minor quakes happened last summer.

Both sides have legitimate-sounding arguments.

American Water Management Services Inc. says the two seismic events — a magnitude 1.7 tremor in July and a 2.1 about a month later — were minor and were not felt by the general populace or big enough to cause damage.

Reduced volume

Company officials want to restart injections at the site, only at a reduced volume, to see whether the reduction would help control any ground movement. The state allowed similar activities at a Washington County well, with the results showing a correlation between reduced injections and reduced seismicity.

The company also points out that it has invested millions of dollars in the operation, and officials aren’t happy that the state’s been stringing them along with promises of restarted activities that never come to fruition.

Add to that the ongoing development of guidelines by the state for dealing with wells that are tied to ground movement. There’s no timeline for adopting any new guidelines, leaving AWMS in limbo.

“We believe that it is fundamentally unfair to enforce a total suspension against AWMS and this well when we submit the best scientific evidence and opinion support resumption of this well at some level,” John Keller, legal counsel for AWMS, told the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission. “... If the state truly desires to take at least six months if not longer to come up with this statewide policy, at least we should not have to have 95 percent of our revenue in this $5 million facility curtailed for that entire period when admittedly we complied with all of the requirements of the permits and the law and have cooperated in all respects.”

The state counters that similar lower-level seismic activity occurred at the Northstar well, about seven miles away, months before a magnitude 4 earthquake shook the Youngstown area. That bigger quake was tied to Northstar, which was shut down.

State officials are concerned that the quakes will get bigger if injection activity at the Weathersfield well continues. And that could have dire consequences for the schools, homes, businesses and other community areas nearby.

The state “is trying to develop a policy, criteria, in place to minimize the risk,” said Brett Kravitz, legal counsel for the state. “We do not want Weathersfield to be an experiment. They deserve to have an opportunity to have the division formulate this policy as a way of minimizing risk ...”

Again, both sides offer legitimate-sounding arguments.

The ultimate decision in this case will have repercussions for eastern Ohio’s fracking-related activities.

The question is whether state officials remember the outcry from residents affected by earlier fracking-induced earthquakes and how that public pressure will affect the ultimate state policy on wells that cause seismic activity.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.