Coitsville Northstar injection well may start operating

COITSVILLE — A company has been working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to provide plans that may lead to the operation of an injection well that had been idled by the state, an ODNR spokesman confirmed.

The Class II Northstar Collins No. 6 injection well was drilled in 2011 but was never activated, said Adam Schroeder, ODNR spokesman. The old permit for D&L Energy expired, and the well is now owned by Bobcat Energy of Canfield.

In 2011, the state banned injection wells within five miles of a Youngstown Northstar brine-injection well, including this Coitsville well, that was suspected to have caused 11 earthquakes that year, including a 4.0 magnitude earthquake on New Year’s Eve.

Bobcat Energy has not officially applied for a permit for the well, Schroeder said, but submitted plans to prepare the land for a “surface facility.”

The surface facility could mean a couple of different things, Schroeder explained, but would likely involve either a drive-through facility or a pad where trucks could connect to the injection lines and inject in the well the brine they carried.