Judge OKs plan for injection well restart
WEATHERSFIELD — American Water Management Services is preparing to resume operations at its injection well along state Route 169 following a judge’s approval of a plan that places conditions on the site.
Steve Kilper with Avalon Holdings, the company that owns AWMS, said Wednesday the company was waiting for word on whether the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which idled the well more than two years ago, will appeal or file a stay to Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft’s Tuesday decision that allows the site to reopen.
Kilper said the site has been maintained but preparing it to resume operations “will take some time.”
“I believe the judge made a good ruling. She made a very well-informed decision, now it’s a matter of moving to the next step,” Kilper said.
Cocroft, in her order dated Tuesday, said she reviewed plans submitted by both parties for operating the well. She states “there is no just reason for delay” and “AWMS is permitted to commence operations at AWMS #2 Well in accordance with” the plan she outlined.
The state has 30 days to appeal. ODNR spokesman Matt Eiselstein said “ODNR does intend to appeal today’s ruling and will file to stay the ruling,” or temporarily stop the judge’s order.
Eiselstein, in an email to the Tribune Chronicle, stated, “ODNR offered, and the court rejected, an operational plan for this injection well that would have created the appropriate protections for the citizens in the area. ODNR is concerned that Judge Cocroft’s decision today in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas unnecessarily places the safety of the Mahoning Valley community at risk. The court approved a plan that essentially 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.”
An appeal by ODNR was denied Tuesday by the 10th District Court of Appeals prior to Cocroft’s latest ruling.
Kilper said Cocroft’s order is “much more conservative than any plan that’s been implemented” to date. Among other conditions, the plan calls for:
• Monitoring in real time, meaning AWMS must, with the agreement of the property owners involved, continue to operate and maintain the four micro-seismic monitoring stations the company installed at the site.
• Temporarily reducing the amount of wastewater injected into the well by 20 percent of the average amount that was injected daily in July and August of 2014 and limit the pressure for the first 20 days.
• Monitoring and adjusting daily volume pressure, increasing it by 10 percent providing there is no seismic event in the vicinity, for an additional 20 days.
• If there is seismic activity of magnitude 2.35 or over, AWMS must immediately reduce daily volumes and maximum surface pressure by 10 percent for 20 days and monitor and adjust.
• If there’s a seismic event of magnitude 3.0 or higher, the company must stop injecting for 20 days, followed by a period of gradual daily increases.
ODNR shut down the well after an Aug. 31, 2014, 2.1 magnitude quake was connected to the well located just north of Niles. ODNR also idled a shallow well at the site, but later it was allowed to reopen.
Cocroft ruled in December that state regulators had the authority to shut down AWMS deep brine injection well. However, Cocroft said the state should have allowed the company an opportunity to resume pumping operations at lower pressures and volumes and ordered negotiations for a reopening to begin.
vshank@tribtoday.com
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