Federal regulators are getting ready to approve a wastewater injection well in Plum.
Delmont-based Penneco Environmental Solutions filed an application last year to convert an old oil and gas well that stopped producing in 2015 into a disposal well to hold oil and gas waste.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing on the permit for July 26 at the Plum Community Center at 6:30 p.m.
The permit, if approved, would allow Penneco to pump up to 54,000 barrels of oil and gas brine monthly about 1,900 feet under the surface.
Injection wells such as this take advantage of the naturally porous sandstone that once held oil and gas to soak up wastewater and keep it sealed between layers of less permeable shale.
“We selected that area because it already has a lot of brine movement and it’s very porous,” said Ben Wallace, COO at Penneco Oil Co. “You’re basically injecting into a wet sponge.”
The Murrysville Sandstone — the “wet sponge” in Plum -— is shallower than many formations that hold disposal wells in Pennsylvania. Mr. Wallace said that should alleviate, rather than raise, concerns about earthquakes.
Small earthquakes have been reported in the vicinity of disposal wells, most notably in Oklahoma.
“I’m sure that’s everybody’s number one fear,” Mr. Wallace said.
But he contended that the likelihood of that happening at this shallow depth is “exceptionally low.”
The well, about a quarter of a mile south of the intersection of Old Leechburg Road and Route 366, was first drilled in 1989 and extended to a depth of 4,320 feet. When its natural gas production waned enough for the well to become uneconomical, Penneco poured cement into it to plug it, leaving the top 1,940 feet open. This will become the disposal well.
Penneco Environmental Solutions, which formed under the umbrella of the nearly 40-year-old Penneco Oil Co., is capitalizing on the millions of gallons of salty brine and chemical-laced wastewater that flow out of shale gas wells in Appalachia and need a permanent home.
A few months ago, it took over another wastewater disposal well in Tucker County, W.Va., where its oil and gas drilling arm had been disposing of its own brine for nearly a decade.
Many shale drillers recycle their wastewater in future hydraulic fracturing jobs, but with development muted over the past few years, not every drop can be used again. So oil and gas companies have spent a significant chunk of money trucking wastewater to injection wells outside the state and solidifying it to place in landfills.
Unlike Texas, which has thousands of disposal wells, Pennsylvania has less than a dozen, in part because its geology makes it less hospitable to such wells.
But the oil and gas industry has been advocating for years for more such options to deal with the growing volume of wastewater, and for speedier regulatory approvals.
Penneco’s permit must be approved first by federal environmental regulators. Then, it will move on to the state Department of Environmental Protection for its stamp.
DEP spokesperson Neil Shader said the agency will hold public hearings on it if there is sufficient interest in the matter.
The DEP recently approved three such disposal wells — in Indiana, Clearfield and Elk counties.
All are at deeper depths than what is being proposed by Penneco, however.
Each has drawn fierce local opposition, with two municipalities — Grant Township in Indiana County and Highland Township in Elk — enacting ordinances in an attempt to keep the disposal wells out of their communities.
Mr. Wallace said local zoning authorities will also have a part to play in approving the disposal well. The site will have to be upgraded with new roads, a space for storage tanks and unloading facilities for multiple trucks traveling daily to and from the area.
The EPA is accepting public comments on the Penneco’s proposed permit until July 26. They can be sent to scavello.grant@epa.gov.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455.
First Published: July 20, 2017, 11:35 p.m.
