Franklin County judge: Follow order to reopen Weathersfield injection well

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Judge Kimberly Cocroft of Franklin County Common Pleas Court ruled Monday against the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in its effort to obtain a stay of execution of her decision ordering a Weathersfield Township injection well back open.

The judge ruled Dec. 23 that the ODNR Division of Oil and Gas and the well’s owner, American Water Management Services, had 30 days to submit a proposed judgment entry to her, giving specifics of how the well will reopen.

That deadline ran out Monday with no judgment entry being filed.

The ODNR filed an appeal of Judge Cocroft’s decision Jan. 19 and asked for the stay of execution.

In Monday’s judgment entry, the judge said one reason she was refusing to stay execution of her order was that the ODNR waited until four days before Monday’s deadline to request the stay.

“In the Court’s opinion, this course of conduct alone discourages a finding that a stay is justified,” the judge said.

She added that the ODNR’s stay request was “predicated on the same arguments it asserted” before she ruled Dec. 23.

“The court has already considered and rejected these arguments when it decided the merits of American Water’s appeal,” she said.

A request to the ODNR’s spokesman, Eric Heis, to comment on Monday’s ruling was not returned Tuesday.

The Dec. 23 ruling came in an appeal of a decision by the Columbus-based Ohio Oil and Gas Commission.

The commission’s decision was an appeal of a decision by the director of the ODNR Division of Oil and Gas to shut down the well after small earthquakes in July and August 2014.

Judge Cocroft said the judgment entry will need to state a way for the company to limit the volume and pressure of oil and gas waste it injects deep underground at its facility initially, and how it will incrementally increase the volume and pressure of the waste.