Industry Group: Injection Wells 'Misunderstood'
WINDHAM, Ohio -- Representatives of the Ohio Oil And Gas Association, or OOGA, say that the fears and concerns associated with Class II injection wells across the state are unfounded. To prove their contention, they demonstrated for reporters just how routine the practice is.
"It's really underwhelming," said OOGA Vice President David Hill, who also owns three injection wells in Ohio and production operations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. "They're very misunderstood. It's easy to fear what you don't know."
OOGA representatives invited print media from northeastern Ohio to a tour Wednesday of a typical injection well. David Ballentine, president of Northeast Ohio Oilfield Service Inc., owns and operates the well on land he leases in this rural area of the state in Portage County.
The well was originally drilled as an oil and gas well that targeted the Clinton formation but that proved unproductive. So it was converted into an injection well in 1986.
"We inject water into the Newburg formation, which is just above the Clinton," Ballentine told reporters. At 3,900 feet, the depth of Ballentine's well is relatively shallow compared to the deeper injection wells that accommodate waste generated by drilling operations in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays.
And, Ballentine’s own trucks haul all the water injected into the well, water generated inside the state, he said. "We don't inject any Marcellus or Utica water, or water from out-of-state."
Like the larger horizontal wells that operate in the Utica and Marcellus, Clinton producers use hydraulic fracturing to complete these wells. The process calls for injecting water, sand and a smattering of chemicals into the formation to break up the rock below, releasing the oil and gas the strata contain.
Four large storage tanks that comprise the tank battery dominate the injection well site, which usually stores 250 barrels of wastewater per day, Ballentine said. In all, the company operates six such wells that collectively handle roughly 1,200 barrels a day.
Once the wastewater is delivered to the site, it's filtered and pumped back into the storage tanks where it's then pushed to the well site, about 500 feet from the tank battery. The injection well is merely a collection of pipes emerging from the ground.
The well is reinforced by three strings of steel casings that are cemented in place, Ballentine added. Near the bottom of the well is a "packer," or a steel and rubber seal set so water cannot migrate upward once it's injected.
Beneath the packer is a portion of the pipe that is perforated so the injected water can escape.
Attached to the wellhead is a solar-powered monitor, which allows Ballentine – and the ODNR for that matter – to keep abreast of the condition of the well.
"It's all remote-monitored. I have an app for it," he said. "The state inspector comes out here I'd say every 2½ weeks."
Although Ballentine's injection well is smaller, the premise is the same at larger units that handle Utica or Marcellus drilling wastewater, he said. But, he emphasized, he's more comfortable with handling wastewater from nearby operations that target the Clinton sandstone formation.
"The Utica is a whole other world to step into," Ballentine commented.
Injection wells came under scrutiny in 2011 after a series of earthquakes that rocked the Mahoning Valley that year were tied to a Class II disposal well in Youngstown. The well, owned by D&L Energy, was shut down.
Since the earthquakes, OOGA’s Hill noted, the state has imposed some of the toughest laws and guidelines in the industry related to the use of disposal wells. Under S.B. 315, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources can unilaterally shut down an injection well if it fails to pass a series of compliance tests.
"Inspectors are at my wells I'd say at least once a week," Hill said. "The state is watching."
Hill bristles at the notion that Ohio has become what critics have called a "dumping ground" for out-of-state wastewater.
"There are 144,000 Class II injection wells in he United States," Hill reported. "Ohio has about 179." In 2012, these injection wells accepted just 12 million barrels of wastewater, which amounts to .05% of the all the wastewater injected in wells across the country.
The reason injection wells in Ohio accept wastewater from other states is because the geology is sufficient to accommodate the fluid, Hill explained.
"There's nothing new about this," he said. "It's been around for decades."
Hill also takes issue with critics who allege that injection wells pose a serious health risk to the community, noting that the water generated from these wells are mostly water, and any chemicals found can also be found in household uses.
"It's 99.5% water," he said. One of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing is a thickener called guar, which is used in the food industry. "One of them is muriatic acid, which is what we put in pools that our children swim in. These things are extremely low concentration."
Also, he stated that per S.B. 315, oil and gas production companies are now mandated to identify the chemicals used to hydraulically fracture each well.
"There's full disclosure," Hill said.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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