(Please see the FOLLOW UP to this article, at the end)
What is the importance of one more well? Wells deliver water or oil or gas to the surface. But wells may also be used to deliver waste into the earth. A UIC, (Underground Injection Control Class IID well) is a well into which radioactive, chemically toxic waste fluid from fracking is injected under high pressure. The fracking industry uses a lot of Its waste water over again, but over 200 million gallons per year is injected underground. Nine wells that receive fracking waste water every day are operating in Pennsylvania. Five more are under construction.(https://www.alleghenyfront.org/groups-oppose-pittsburgh-area-fracking-waste-injection-well/) Given the drive to keep fracking to feed blue hydrogen hubs, the problem of where to put the wastewater will grow and continue as long as we can breathe. As well as carcinogenic organic compounds, PFAS, and toxic heavy metals, the wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling contains at least 40 times the concentrations of radium that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission classifies as hazardous radioactivity.(https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2011/5135/pdf/sir2011-5135.pdf) At the Marcellus Shale Coalition website it is stated that UIC Class IID welfare typical 2,000 to 8,000 feet deep. The wells proposed to store liquid carbon dioxide underground are within this range, also.
July 11, 2023 there was a public hearing held on the proposal to convert an old production well called Orville Higinbotham #1, in Nicholson Township, Pennsylvania, to a UIC site. EPA electronically posted a notice of this proposal on June 8th. Thank goodness there are active people who read the notices of UIC permitting actions in EPA Region 3 (PA, VA & Washington DC). You can sign up to receive this e-mail list at R3_UIC_Mailbox@epa.gov. EPA asked that requests to hold the hearing July 11th must be received at the EPA by phone or e-mail by July 4th. “EPA expressly reserves the right to cancel this hearing unless a significant degree of public interest is evidenced by July 4, 2023.” In some rural areas, where few people have internet, documentation of public interest is very difficult. EPA may be encouraged not to stage a public meeting and not to allow virtual participation in such a meeting.
When the meeting on the Orville Higinbotham well started the room was packed. Many people spoke about the adverse effects they expect from this well. They do not want trucks carrying fracking waste to crash on their rural road, as accidents are frequent there. They imagine the toxic waste spreading into their food gardens, groundwater & wells. The potentially best comments to stop this proposal were those that showed the inadequacy of the proposal in documenting existing wells & mines and water flow patterns in the area, and the lack of attention to environmental justice rules.
According to the EPA Environmental Justice screening tool, residents of Fayette County, specifically Nicholson Township, PA, are already subject to much higher risk for water contamination by fracking waste with negative impact on drinking water and health. Further injection of oil and gas waste into an already highly fractured underground strata raises the possibility of contamination reaching the Monongahela River and the drinking water of more than 100,000 people. The Monongahela Watershed already ranks 4th nationally for the greatest releases of chemicals that cause reproductive harm.
Vigilance and organization are necessary to get any safety in the face of this type of industrial development. Consider the work of Mountain Watershed Association, Protect PT. and Food and Water Watch. These not-for-profit organizations have been working to protect communities and can help us find effective methods. Persistence is necessary, but don’t forget that once your water is contaminated by fracking waste the way that you lived on this land is over forever.
Township supervisors could vote this down. Work with them to deny entry of this polluting industry to your community. At a recent hearing regarding permitting of an injection well in Potter County, all the people spoke against this with the exception of one driller who claimed that the wastes stayed thousands of feet below the surface. Residents of Potter County produced photos showing waste waters on the surface of the ground.
Now is the time to electrify as much as possible and leave gas in the ground. We do not want continued threats of contamination by fracking wastewater.
FOLLOW UP
“On Friday, August 4, 2023, G2 STEM LLC notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its withdrawal of the Underground Injection Control (UIC) permit application (EPA Permit No. PAS2D061BFAY) for the proposed Orville Higinbotham #1 Class IID disposal injection well in Nicholson Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
EPA would like to thank the individuals that commented on the draft permit for your thoughtful and insightful comments.” Kevin Rowsey, Source Water & UIC Section, Water Division, U.S. EPA Region 3
Without the input of the community to be impacted and input from local experts in details of the planned drilling activity and the Justice 40 rules, it is unlikely that this proposal would have been withdrawn. This is reminiscent of the work of Ginny Kerslake in Chester County, described article in the May-July issue of the Campfire Dispatch. (link to previous CFD)
Barbara W. Brandom, MD