Showing posts with label fracking brine dumping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fracking brine dumping. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Where Are All the Fracking Brine Injection Sites In Ohio

Update 1/29/2018 - the map has been removed from the Internet.

The map I am going to link to at the end of this post, dated January 2012, shows all of the brine injection wells in Ohio, as of that date.

Forty-three of Ohio's eighty-eight counties host brine injection sites, with brine injected to different depths in different counties. Here, on this site, the counties are in alphabetical order for your convenience in finding your own county, or you can hit Ctrl+f and type the name of your county into the little search box that pops up, and it should take you right to it.

While the map is dated January 2012, it is possible it was only recently made available online, as I have done many, many, and very frequent Internet searches for this information and this is the first I have found anything.

The map is color-coded to show what level or depth the brine is injected to in the earth's crust. (Check the map's key for more details on that.)

Some of the dots are piled on top of one another, making it hard to see without zooming, but here is a basic rundown of how many injection wells can be found in each county. The counties with brine injection wells are highlighted to make it easier to spot them. The wells shown crossing county lines are not accurately represented here because I did not know which county gets to - or has to - claim each of those.

  1. Adams: None
  2. Allen: None
  3. Ashland: None
  4. Ashtabula: Twelve
  5. Athens: Seven (Three appear to overlap Vinton and Meigs county lines)
  6. Auglaize: One
  7. Belmont: Two
  8. Brown: None
  9. Butler: None
  10. Carroll: Four (two appear to overlap into Tuscarawas and Stark county lines)
  11. Champaign: None
  12. Clark: None
  13. Clermont: None
  14. Clinton: None
  15. Columbiana: Five (all of these are on the Stark and Mahoning county lines, making it hard to determine which county actually gets to claim them.
  16. Coshocton: Four (one is on the Knox county line)
  17. Crawford: None
  18. Cuyahoga: None
  19. Darke: None
  20. Defiance: None
  21. Delaware: One
  22. Erie: One
  23. Fairfield: None
  24. Fayette: None
  25. Franklin
  26. Fulton: One
  27. Gallia: Two
  28. Geauga: Four (two are on county line shared with Ashatabula County)
  29. Greene: None
  30. Guernsey: Three
  31. Hamilton: None
  32. Hancock: None
  33. Hardin: One (on county line shared with Marion and Wyandot)
  34. Harrison: None
  35. Henry: One
  36. Highland: None
  37. Hocking: Two
  38. Holmes: Five (one on Wayne county line)
  39. Huron: None
  40. Jackson: None
  41. Jefferson: One
  42. Knox: Five (one on Coshocton county line)
  43. Lake: Two (one on edge of Lake Erie)
  44. Lawrence: None
  45. Licking: Two
  46. Logan: None
  47. Lorain: One
  48. Lucas: None
  49. Madison: None
  50. Mahoning: Nine (six are on the Columbiana, Stark, and Trumbull county lines)
  51. Marion: None (But one is on county lines where Marion, Hardin, and Wyandot counties meet)
  52. Medina: One
  53. Meigs: Eleven (one is on the county line between Meigs, Athens, and Vinton)
  54. Mercer: None
  55. Miami: None
  56. Monroe: None
  57. Montgomery: None
  58. Morgan: Ten (two are on the border of Muskingum and Athens counties)
  59. Morrow: Thirteen
  60. Muskingum: Five (one is on the border of Morgan county)
  61. Noble: Four (two are together on the border of Washington county)
  62. Ottawa: None
  63. Paulding: None
  64. Perry: Three
  65. Pickaway: Seven
  66. Pike: None
  67. Portage: Eighteen (five are on the borders of Geauga and Trumbull Counties)
  68. Preble: None
  69. Putnam: None
  70. Richland: One
  71. Ross: None
  72. Sandusky: None
  73. Scioto: None
  74. Seneca: Two
  75. Shelby: None
  76. Stark: Seventeen (five are on the borders of Summit, Mahoning, and Carroll counties)
  77. Summit: One
  78. Trumbull: Nine (four are on the borders of Portage and Mahoning counties)
  79. Tuscarawas: Six (two are on the border of Carrol county.)
  80. Union: None
  81. Van Wert: None
  82. Vinton: Four (all on the border of Athens and Meigs counties)
  83. Warren: None
  84. Washington: Nine
  85. Wayne: Three (one on the border of Holmes)
  86. Williams: None
  87. Wood: One
  88. Wyandot: Two (one on the border of Hardin and Wyandot counties)
This is the link to the map: Class II Brine Injection Wells of Ohio


Posted by LJ at 6:01 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Fracking Brine and Niagara Falls

While not Ohio-centric, I was surprised to learn that the Niagara Falls had considered accepting fracking brine. The board opted to pass on the "frackertunity" based on the fact that they have already experiences Love Canal and don't want to revisit the experience.

The city recently banned storing and transporting waste-water, in a sense blocking frac truck's access to the Niagara Falls Water Board.

Council Chairman Sam Fruscione recently provided an excellent quote in a Wall Street Journal/Associated Press article, "We're not selling out future generations of our children for corporate greed." Kudos Mr. Fruscione, for looking out for your constituents.
Posted by LJ at 9:40 PM 0 comments
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Monday, January 16, 2012

Mansfield Ohio Resists Fracking Brine Dumping

The city of Mansfield is reevaluating the plans to allow construction of two fracking brine injection wells, slated to be installed in the industrial park within city limits.

According to a report on Reuters, city officials plan to require testing, paid for by the company bringing in the brine - Preferred Fluids Management, and therefore cutting into the company's bottom line.

A 2004 law complicates matters for the city because the law hands jurisdiction to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

Possibly, the city of Mansfield and other affected communities will find some assistance by looking to the past, to a higher court, such as the findings of the 1974 Belle Terre Supreme Court case where the Court upheld a community's right to create zoning on certain quality of life issues on a case-by-case basis:

  •  "The Court listed as considerations bearing on the constitutionality of zoning ordinances the danger of fire or collapse of buildings, the evils of overcrowding people, and the possibility that "offensive trades, industries, and structures" might "create nuisance" to residential sections."
Posted by LJ at 6:31 AM 0 comments
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Monday, January 2, 2012

Youngstown Ohio's 4.0 Earthquake Linked to Fracking Brine Dumping

It can be hard to picture why brine dumping would cause earthquakes. The term dumping implies getting rid of waste by, well, dumping it. It does not paint an accurate picture of how the brine is forced back into the ground under the same kind of high pressure used to extract the natural gas during the hydraulic fracturing drilling process. That pressure forced into unstable ground, according to geologists studying the problem, is causing earthquakes.

Recent history has found earthquakes increasing near fracking brine injection sites in Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas. This past weekend, scientists announced that Ohio has joined the party - so to speak - with its 11th earthquake in the past 8 months. The earthquake this weekend was a 4.0 magnitude in the Youngstown/West Akron area and was felt as far away as Michigan, Ontario, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Before the onset of fracking brine dumping into injection wells in this community, earthquakes were extremely rare.

"James Zehringer, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, announced the closing of two injection wells in Youngstown Township owned by Northstar Disposal Services LLC and operated by D&L Energy Inc." (Ohio.com)
Posted by LJ at 10:48 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Fracking Brine Coming to Mansfield, Ohio

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about fracking brine injection wells slated for inner-Mansfield.

According to the latest news in The Mansfield News Journal, the Mansfield City Law Director has informed concerned citizens attempting to fight the propesed injection sites they have no legal standing.

Again, according to the News Journal article, Spon, the City Law Director, is working to help concerned citizens while taking the calming approach of somewhat downplaying the significance of using the inner-city industrial park site as a dumping ground for fracking brine, stating that the issue is not fracking itself, and is simply fracking-related brine.

The points that are easy to overlook in this issue are:
  • This is not a salt-water brine like your grandmother would have used to make pickles, this is the same toxin-filled brine that is used for fracking. Calling it fracking-related brine  does not change what it is.
  • It only takes one small bubble in the injection well's concrete casing to allow a toxic cocktail to leak out into the local water supply. (Have you ever seen concrete that didn't have at least one small bubble?)
  • The injection well casing only goes so far down, so after that depth it only takes one weak spot in the underlying ground (something no one among us can control) to allow a leak.
  • The fact that Ohio already has 184 of these deep-well fracking brine injection sites, dumps the stuff on the roadway to control ice and dusts, and (in some counties) coats road salt with it does not mean it is safe. (Is it honestly safe or have Ohioans so far simply been lucky there have been no larger problems?) In fact, if, like most everything else that affects human life, the fracking brine toxins have a cumulative effect... well, it's accumulating - you can fill in the rest.
So I'll end this post with a link to the original post on this site and another to the News Journal article, Mansfield Can't Fight Fracking Waste Wells, covering this so you can check out the original source if you want to, and a wish for Mansfield residents and all of us, that a safe resolution for disposing of fracking brine can be found before it's too late.
Posted by LJ at 6:54 AM 0 comments
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Monday, November 28, 2011

How Many Jobs Will Be Created by Shale Drilling?

How many jobs will be created by shale drilling?

This post steps away from the environmental impact of fracking, to look at the one potential positive aspect of this issue: job creation.

No one who is familiar with Ohio's current economic situation could legitimately argue against the point that people here need jobs.

According to a quote from Lorain Mayor, Tony Krasienko, in a recent R&D Magazine article, for every manufacturing job created (by fracking) 5 to 7 ancillary jobs are created.

If, for example, you apply these numbers to the 350 manufacturing jobs expected to be coming to Youngstown via the V&M Star Mills, and you have the potential for between 1750 and 2450 newly created jobs.

The New Gold Rush

It's no wonder this is being referred to as the new gold rush.

The new jobs are obviously a positive thing for the economy, the puzzling part is, why can't the jobs be created without endangering people who live near drilling and brine dumping sites?

The technology exists to do this safely, sure, it costs the gas companies more to implement some of the safety measures, but considering how big the profits are regardless, why not do it safely rather than risk lives?

On Fracking Brine Dumping

A quick Internet search yields Halliburton documents on the process for filtering completion fluids and then reusing the parts filtered out for things like rat poison. So why dump the rat poison makings into the ground to seep back out into drinking water? Because it costs more to filter it? Is the fact that it's cheaper to dump toxins into old wells in an agricultural community than to filter the toxins out a good enough reason to dump tons upon tons of contaminated brine into the ground?

Every single one of these fracking jobs can be created without increasing the environmental risk. The question is, will the government and company leaders step forward and do the right thing?
Posted by LJ at 6:42 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

EPA Effort to End Brine Dumping in Ohio's Mahoning River

For the last year, the city of Warren has been exercising the benefit of a permit allowing them to dump 100,000 gallons of fracking brine into the Mahoning River every day.

When the city appealed the permit, asking permission to allow even more brine to be dumped into the waterway,   Ohio's Attorney General and EPA Director stepped in and are working to repeal the permit altogether.

The practice of river-dumping the toxic fracking brine is expected to end soon as it is replaced with dumping into injection wells.

Is the practice of injection well dumping safer for stakeholders? 

No one actually knows! Some of the injection wells are near streams and in watersheds, but dumping the brine into the ground offers the illusion of safety, and it's out of site - out of mind - at least until people in the surrounding area start getting sick.

For now, though, it's a small victory for people living downstream from Warren, Ohio, that someone is working to protect them from the brine toxins currently being dumped in Warren.
Posted by LJ at 6:20 AM 0 comments
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Monday, September 12, 2011

ODOT Document About De-Icing Roads and Brine Use

I'm popping back in today in the interest of fairness to share a link to Ohio Department of Transportation's (ODOT's) document about de-icing the roads. When I found it, I was researching, attempting to find out just how much the state of Ohio spends annually on brine to dump on the roads after reviewing the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) documents about dumping oilfield completion brine and natural gas fracking brine on roadways. (Sorry about that long sentence.)

The ODOT document in question, while it does not specifically state what makes up the brine, states that all brine is made "in-house". So, depending on the breadth of the state's definition of "in-house" it leaves a lot open.

I found it interesting that two other government agencies state that it is drilling/fracking brine while the Ohio Department of Transportation offers that it is something they make. One question this raises: Does that mean the state starts with fracking brine and adds more chemicals before adding it to the road?

So, this post doesn't give any answers, it just raises more questions... and shares a link to an interesting document.
Posted by LJ at 7:09 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Update on Fracking Brine Dumping on Ohio Roadways

Updated January 21, 2011

Since strict environmental laws say dumping hazardous waste anywhere it can get into our water systems and soil is forbidden, why are some states dumping it on the roadways to keep down ice and dust - depending upon the season in question? This recently updated  Ohio Environmental Protection Agency document, Drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus and Utica Shales: Environmental Regulatory Basics, outlines in very specific language that this is being done in Ohio. 

The original document (circa 1983/Ohio Department of Natural Resources) outlining procedures for roadway/oilfield completion fluid dumping, implied that only oilfield completion fluids would be dumped, and then listed a few, somewhat unrealistic measures that are in place to keep the brine out of waterways, yards, and fields. (I mean, if it runs off the road and into the ditch, it is going to flow right along with the rest of the runoff water when the snow melts or when it rains. It's water, it isn't going to separate the toxins out of itself just because someone wants us to believe it will.) According to the newly released (July 2011 OEPA document, it is no longer oilfield completion fluid - ever.


Add dumping brine into old injection wells, and it's really a wonder it's still safe to drink the water. Or is it still safe? That's not for me to decide, I'm just here to share the information I find. I'm not against fracking, I don't hate energy companies, I just think it is the height of irresponsible behavior for businesses, and for state officials charged with the responsibility to protect the interests of citizens, to proceed with something so hazardous without a realistic plan in place for protecting the environment. 

Posted by LJ at 10:52 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Introducing the Frac Truck

While this frac article is not Ohio-centric, these are the trucks used to bring contaminated brine to Ohio. Ohioans should be aware that this article describes the quantity of contaminated fracking brine water drillers are bringing to Ohio to dump into abandoned oil wells in agricultural communities. (The quantities are highlighted in yellow below if you are searching for raw data.)

Author: CentralTruckSales

Demand for frac tanks is growing and we believe that a major reason for the increase is the service that comes along with a boom in the demand and desire for exploring the natural gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale. In order to crack the Marcellus Shale, over one mile beneath Pennsylvania and other parts of our Appalachian region, that is so abundant in gas and natural gas liquids, drilling companies use a method called hydraulic fracturing.

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", are terms used to describe the process used to "frac" Marcellus Shale gas wells. To release methane from the shale, high pressure is used to crack the shale formation. While there are alternatives to water for fracking gas wells, such as nitrogen, production companies prefer to use water, since significantly higher hydraulic pressures can be created and it is a generally less expensive process. Some reports indicate these pressures can reach as high as 10,000 to 15,000 pounds per square inch.

Each Marcellus well frack job calls for 3 to 8 million gallons of water or recycled wastewater. With that much waste water, the frac trucks for sale chosen to move that wastewater becomes a very intricate decision process. But get this, since many of the latest well pads have 8 wells, that brings the total requirement up to 24 to 64 million gallons for one well pad. Imagine how many frac trucks and vacuum trucks are needed to move 64 million gallons of water. Wow.

These huge volumes of water are one of the reasons that vacuum trucks and temporary pipelines have become common sights around the Marcellus Shale regions over the past several years. These frac trucks for sale carry approximately 4,000 gallons each and are often marked with "Residual Waste" for the drilling wastewater they haul that comes back out of a Marcellus well following fracking. This wastewater can easily be 5-times saltier than ocean water, while also containing toxic volatile organic compounds and fracking chemicals. These frac trucks must be large, powerful, and most importantly, safe so that the transported hazardous material is properly removed and disposed of in its entirety.

Environmental Protection Departments in the region will require that drilling companies obtain approved Water Management Plans. 29 Marcellus Shale drilling companies in the 10-county area making up the SW Region of Pennsylvania, have approved water management plans for withdrawals totaling 48.5 million gallons of water through mid-2014. While drillers are exempt from many environmental laws, they must comply with the Clean Streams Law. These laws and the regulations that drillers will be given for the clean up process will drive the growth and need for frac trucks for years to come, if natural gas becomes this country's next great hope for energy.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/trucks-articles/introducing-the-frac-truck-4975549.html


About the Author

Alex Rood is an expert in quality used commercial trucks. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us by visiting our main site: http://www.centraltrucksales.net.
Posted by LJ at 12:26 PM 1 comments
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