Thursday, September 04, 2014NILES, Ohio -- The owner and operator of two wastewater injection wells in Weathersfield Township describes the small earthquake recorded near one as a "total nonevent," as business proceeds as usual at the site.
Meantime, new evidence shows that more than 60 small earthquakes occurred in March near a drilling operation in Poland Township, according to documents requested from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
"Whatever is taking place is meaningless," says Ron Klingle, chairman of Avalon Holdings Corp., the parent of American Water Management Services Inc., which operates the two wells. "Of the events that have occurred, none have been significant."
Last Sunday, a quake measuring 2.1 was recorded near one of the injection wells just off Main Street in Weathersfield. The wells are used to store wastewater from drilling operations in the Utica and Marcellus shale plays.
Klingle says that 8,000 earthquakes registering between 2.0 and 3.0 on the Richter scale occur every day across the United States. "There are 80,000 every day between 1.0 and 2.0," he says. "Everything has to be kept into perspective. This is an absolute, total nonevent."
The activist group FrackFree Mahoning Valley issued a statement yesterday demanding that all injection activity be halted at the site.
Klingle says certain groups are using scare tactics to pressure the public and regulators into driving out energy-related business in the area. "What's not insignificant is that there seems to be individuals doing everything they can to scare the public," he says.
Injection wells are an essential part of the oil and gas industry and the attention given the quakes or closing the injection wells could cause the entire business to pull out of the region or even Ohio. That would be detrimental to the local economy, Klingle adds.
"That's the part that's frightening," he says.
Klingle is also chairman of the Western Reserve Port Authority and oversees the agency’s economic development activities.
Since the quake occurred, American Water has been in continuous contact with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which continues to look into the matter.
Seismometers about a mile away are also much more sensitive and likely to record more seismic data, Klingle notes. American Waste contracts with another company to record such data.
In 2012, a series of earthquakes, including a 4.0 magnitude temblor, rippled through the Mahoning Valley. The source of the quakes was determined to be an injection well operation in Youngstown and it was shut down.
ODNR has not as yet issued any orders or directives regarding Klingle's operation, which is still accepting wastewater.
Ray Beiersdorfer, a professor of geology at Youngstown State University, says he would hope the company would be transparent with any data it holds, or allow a third party to monitor the site.
"It's one quake," Beiersdorfer says. "If it becomes part of a swarm, it's related to induced seismicity. If it's quiet, who's going to tell us that it's quiet?"
According to the records, Beiersdorfer said, one of the wells in Weathersfield was drilled to a depth of 9,100 feet, just above the Precambrian basement. The small quake suggests there are faults in the area near that rock formation.
"In Oklahoma, they've had quakes as large as 5.1," Beiersdorfer adds, that have been tied to injection well activity.
It's also important that the public has access to information ODNR possesses, an agency he and others say hasn't been forthcoming about all of the data regarding the earthquakes and other drilling issues.
Beiersdorfer points to a series of public records requests that he says ODNR has incompletely responded to.
The latest documents relate to the earthquakes that hit Poland Township and other parts of eastern Mahoning County in March.
Initially, it was believed that about five tremors were recorded around a drilling pad where Hilcorp Energy Co. was hydraulically fracturing a well at the Carbon Limestone Landfill in Poland Township.
However, data show that more than 60 small earthquakes were detected near the site where the well was being fracked, Beiersdorfer said.
"The ODNR had this information and didn't share it with the public," he says.
On March 10, a 3.0 earthquake shook eastern Mahoning County, followed by several aftershocks of lesser magnitudes.
However, an email dated March 13 from Miami University geology professor Mike Brudzinski to ODNR officials shows that temblors measuring as high as 2.0 on the Richter scale were detected as early as March 4, the last one occurring March 11, Beiersdorfer said.
At first, ODNR reported that the operation might have disturbed a "microfault" near the area, but the data in the email report suggest that it was a rupture almost 300 meters long. "Clearly, describing it as a microfault was inaccurate,” Beiersdorfer said.
The geology professor said he obtained the document as part of a records request through state Rep. Robert Hagan, D-Youngstown.
Hagan, who has battled the ODNR about providing the public with information regarding the oil and gas industry, says that he'll continue to press the agency for more information.
He says he's filed about five open records requests, most of which were rebuffed because ODNR says they are too broad in scope.
"I get bits and pieces from them that makes me beg for more," Hagan notes. "They are here to protect natural resources that are being siphoned off by the oil and gas industry. There has to be someone watching."
Pictured: American Water Management Services Inc.'s brine injection well in Weathersfield Township.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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