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Stay sought in injection well case
COLUMBUS
The state wants appeals court judges to stay a Weathersfield Township injection well’s reopening pending appeal.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources filed a motion Monday with the 10th District Court of Appeals for a stay pending ODNR’s appeal of a lower court order allowing that Trumbull County injection well to reopen.
Doug Eaton, appeals court administrator, said he expects the appeals court will rule on the motion for a stay early next week.
The well’s owner, American Water Management Services LLC, has until 11:59 p.m. today to file a response to the state’s motion for a stay, and ODNR has until 11:59 p.m. Friday to file its rebuttal, Eaton said.
The lower court judge, Kimberly Cocroft, of Franklin County Common Pleas Court, denied last week ODNR’s motion to stay her decision that allows the well to reopen.
ODNR had ordered the well to shut down after small earthquakes at or near the well site in July and August 2014.
Judge Cocroft had ruled Dec. 23 that ODNR and AWMS were to submit to her a proposed judgment entry specifying how the well would reopen.
Judge Cocroft said the judgment entry would have to state how the company would limit the volume and pressure of oil and gas waste it injects deep underground and how it will incrementally increase the waste volume and pressure.
“Seismicity could be induced to levels where the Weathersfield Township community could feel the ground shaking, property could be damaged, or even worse, public health and safety could be jeopardized,” Richard J. Simmers, chief of ODNR’s oil and gas division, said in an affidavit accompanying Monday’s motion for a stay.
“The surrounding schools, businesses, residences and infrastructure of Weathersfield would be exposed to the risks of further seismic activity without even a plan approved by the division, the agency with expertise in these matters,” Simmers added.
“We are going to oppose that,” motion for a stay, said Steve Kilper, an AWMS engineer.
“We’ve been shut down over 28 months” and ODNR has “not given us any feedback” on the plan AWMS submitted in 2014 to reopen the well, Kilper added.
Raymond Beiersdorfer, a Youngstown State University geology professor, has said he’s concerned the Weathersfield well, located less than three miles from the Meander Reservoir dam, could trigger an earthquake that could cause that dam to fail.