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Permits to drill two more Brookfield injection wells expire
By Ed Runyan
BROOKFIELD
Highland Field Services says it’s too soon to say whether it will re-apply to drill three injection wells at a site near Wyngate Manor mobile home park on state Route 7, for which the initial permits have expired.
Highland spokesman Rob Boulware said that decision will rest on how well the two injection wells already drilled on the site perform.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Adam Schroeder confirmed Thursday that the permit to drill two injection wells expired March 16 without the company drilling them. The permit to drill another of the company’s five proposed wells expired earlier.
To drill any of the three in the future would require Highland to carry out another “time-consuming” application process, including the public-comment period, Schroeder said.
It’s “not an everyday occurrence” for a company to apply a second time for a permit to drill, Schroeder said.
Boulware said well No. 5, which was drilled after the Ohio Department of Natural Resources gave the go-ahead in October, has begun commercial injection and accepted 64,708 barrels of wastewater in the third quarter of 2018.
The company is not currently using it for commercial injection because it is conducting maintenance on it, “which is not uncommon after the initial testing has been completed,” Boulware said.
The company also drilled injection well No. 4 in February and will enter the completion phase for it later this month or in May, Boulware said. The company has not asked for a permit to start injecting, Schroeder said.
Eventually, the company will know whether the two drilled wells accept wastewater well, and those results will allow the company to decide whether to add more wells, Boulware said.
Another factor will be whether recent increases in drilling for gas and oil in Ohio and Pennsylvania will continue, Boulware said.
Surprisingly, an increase in drilling for gas and oil would decrease the amount of wastewater Highland would inject. The reason is because Highland is the injection division of a larger company, Seneca Resources, which also drills for gas and oil and recycles water used in developing gas and oil wells.
“We want to recycle and reuse as much water as possible,” Boulware said.
“Right now, there is no reason to move forward in an expedited way” with re-application for the three expired permits, he said.
A citizens group appealed Highland’s permit to operate well No. 5, but Highland was allowed to continue using it while the appeal is pending. A hearing is tentatively set for Aug. 12 and 13.
Brookfield Township Trustee Dan Suttles said there was a great deal of noise and activity day and night at the Highland site the first three months of the year, but all activity has stopped.