Judge orders well reopened; ODNR says it will appeal

WEATHERSFIELD — Two decisions from Columbus courts have once again ordered a Weathersfield Township injection well back open for business, but the Ohio Department of Natural Resources says it will appeal again.

Judge Kimberly Cocroft of Franklin County Common Pleas Court this week ordered that the American Water Management Services injection well on state Route 169 just north of Niles reopen under a monitoring system that will adjust how the well operates depending on the magnitude of small or large earthquakes detected.

That system will continue to utilize four seismic monitoring stations AWMS installed earlier in Weathersfield and Niles to provide the company and state regulators with “real-time” monitoring of earthquakes — also known as seismic activity — occurring near the well.

If a small earthquake of magnitude 2.35 or over occurs, AWMS will “immediately” reduce the daily volume of fluid injection and injection pressure by 10 percent for a 20-day period, the ruling says.

Conversely, if no earthquakes of 2.35 magnitude or larger occur, the company will be allowed to increase injection volumes and injection pressure upward by 10 percent for 20 days from the start-up volumes and pressures the judge selected.

Other adjustments will follow, depending on the magnitude of seismic activity detected.

The ODNR shut down the injection well Sept. 4, 2014, after several small earthquakes were detected near the site. The largest was a 2.1-magnitude event Aug. 31, 2014. It was too small to be felt by humans, but the ODNR feared that the well may have caused slippage in the same geological fault system that triggered the 4.0-magnitude 2011 New Year’s Eve earthquake at the D&L Energy injection well in Youngstown.

Matt Eiselstein, an ODNR spokesman, said late Wednesday that the monitoring system outlined in the ruling “will allow this injection well to cause an unlimited number of seismic events of any magnitude, while offering no chance for ODNR to require the well to be plugged.”

Eiselstein said the court rejected the operational plan ODNR offered that “would have created the appropriate protections for the citizens in the area.”

He added that the ODNR is concerned that Judge Cocroft’s decision “unnecessarily places the safety of the Mahoning Valley community at risk,” and the ODNR will appeal the decision and file another stay of execution seeking to prevent Judge Cocroft’s decision from taking effect.

ODNR also appealed and requested a stay of execution of Judge Cocroft’s Dec. 23, 2016, ruling that overturned the decisions of the ODNR and Ohio Oil and Gas Commission to close the well.

The Columbus-based 10th District Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that attempts to stop Judge Cocroft’s Dec. 23 decision from taking effect were premature and dismissed them. Judge Cocroft issued her new ruling the same day.