Friday, March 29, 2019
Staff report
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. D&L Energy, which no longer operates, had a permit to inject that well, but it was revoked. The well is now owned by Bobcat Energy of Canfield.
In 2011, the state banned injection wells within 5 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.
“It was idled because D&L Energy had all of its permits revoked around that time,” Schroeder said. “As part of the permitting process, we would definitely be looking at the geological make-up, to make sure it was safe to inject into the formation there.”
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 likely would 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.
“All that is regulated through ODNR, so there would be a permit process, a review by engineers and geologists,” he said.
The Vindicator reached out to Bobcat Energy to comment, but the company did not respond.
If the plans for the surface facility are approved, Schroeder said the next step likely could be to apply for a permit to start injecting brine into the well.
Bobcat Energy operated an injection well in North Lima and had plans to operate a well in Hubbard Township, but there were errors with its initial application.