'Swiss cheese' below McKean County injection well site causes concern

CYCLONE, Pa. — "Swiss cheese."

That's the metaphor used to describe McKean County's subterranean landscape by University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Associate Professor of Environmental Science Dr. Ovidiu Frantescu.

There is an unseen spider web of drilled, shot or fracked spaces created by the thousands of conventional oil and gas wells established throughout northwestern Pennsylvania's long energy history.

Despite this fact, Catalyst Energy Inc. of Pittsburgh secured a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection permit Jan. 11 to dispose of more than 30 truckloads per day of hydraulic fracturing wastewater via a Class II injection well in Cyclone, Keating Township.

Residents believe neither Catalyst nor the DEP provided sufficient notice of the intended well and have mounted an appeal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, as soon as Catalyst meets the prerequisites outlined in the permit, the company is free to begin injecting hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic wastewater, even before the appeal process plays out.

The underground injection control (UIC) program's intent, according to the EPA, is to protect underground sources of drinking water (USDW) from contamination caused by the subsurface emplacement of fluids. As such, its permits entail "strict well construction criteria, monitoring and reporting requirements and environmentally protective plugging and abandonment requirements."

Frantescu, a trained geologist, said, "When a well is drilled, there are many layers of protection built into the well, from the time of the drilling. The wells are protected by at least three concentric layers of steel, and three concentric layers of cement."

Wells that predate modern environmental regulations

Cyclone native Joe Cole is thoroughly familiar with the wells' condition, having shot or fracked, operated and plugged wells in the Hilltop oil field for more than 50 years.

Before environmental regulations evolved to those in place today, Cole recalled, area wells were cased not with steel and concrete but with timber. They were plugged by hammering in wooden dowels — logs, essentially — produced by the local mill and then covering the hole with dirt.

Further, as well production began to wane, new methods of extraction were devised. Pennzoil's Project 7 and 8, which Cole explained were all about advanced oil recovery, involved fracking already drilled and shot wells to drive still more crude toward a property's better producing wells.

Residents argue the aforementioned subsurface labyrinth, which already presents area residents challenges with methane in their drinking water, complicates Catalyst's intent to inject fracking wastewater — and was not fully understood by the environmental agencies issuing the permits.

"No one is arguing that this stuff is toxic," Cole declared.

Indeed, in the EPA's response to public comments submitted regarding the (UIC) permit issued to Catalyst, officials recognize the problem. While the permit indicates "the permittee shall not inject any hazardous waste," it simultaneously refuses to categorize "individual constituents within the fluid produced from an oil or gas production reservoir" that "potentially may be toxic, hazardous or radioactive," as such.

"Congress exempted oil and gas production fluids from hazardous waste regulation and such production wastes are not classified as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). As a result, EPA lacks the authority to regulate those fluids ... and the disposal of these fluids down a Class II brine disposal injection well is legally permissible."

However, on page 86 of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) report, "Geologic Carbon Sequestration Opportunities in Pennsylvania," officials advise avoiding the oldest oil and gas fields, like McKean County's, for injection activities "because those areas contain large numbers of oil wells drilled in the late 19th century for which no completion records currently remain."

'POTENTIAL PATHWAYS'

Laurie Barr of Save Our Streams PA, said, "It's simply common sense that these same pathways, available to (carbon dioxide) are also potential pathways for injected fluids. To inject harmful fluids into this oilfield, after having received this DCNR document, and disregarding the known associated risks that the DCNR experts spelled out in the document seems clearly negligent to me."

The Lot 580-1 well in question was drilled in 1990 and produced until 2007. Catalyst, in its permit application, was required to review the quarter-mile area surrounding the well, known as the area of review (AOR). Residents are concerned that both DEP records and Catalyst findings fall far short of the 103 wells identified by historical oil and gas maps and their own GPS mapping efforts.

Further, as part of its evaluation Catalyst did not identify 14 drinking water wells within the AOR that were previously noted on Lot 580-1's original oil and gas permit. Catalyst also asserts the depths of drinking water wells it did identify within one-half mile of the well range from 172 to 265 feet.

The problem with that assertion, Cole observed, is that several Cyclone households have for many years used reclaimed oil wells as drinking water wells. Some may declare it unpalatable, but the practice of submerging the pump below where oil rests on the water's surface has been in use there for decades, including at Cole's childhood home. That puts the lowermost USDW much farther below the surface than the 350 feet claimed by Catalyst in its permit application because, as Frantescu notes, conventional wells are typically drilled at least 2,000 feet deep in the Bradford sands.

The permit limits disposal injection to a depth of 5,169 to 5,266 feet below ground. Proponents of disposal injection wells say that's far enough below USDW to remove concern.

In their appeals, residents pointed out Catalyst's history of environmental and regulatory violations. For example, DEP fined the Pittsburgh company $185,000 in 2012 for "a number of violations at its non-Marcellus oil and gas well operations in Forest, McKean and Warren counties," according to a report on PRNewswire.

An NPR report stated, "The DEP says Catalyst operations polluted 14 residential drinking water supplies in Hickory Township, Forest County." Catalyst was made to pay the fine and conduct remediation, and at the time faced "restrictions on drilling, hydraulically fracturing or developing new or existing well sites."

Repeated attempts to reach Catalyst representatives for comment on this story as well as previous s by The Era remained unanswered by press time Tuesday.

Even so, Cole said that for him the drinking water concern is not even at the top of his list.

The upper reaches of both Kinzua Creek and small tributaries to Cole Creek, which flows into Potato Creek, are within short distances of the well site. Both Kinzua and Potato creeks flow into the Allegheny River.

Regarding concerns about surface water, Frantescu stated that "it is out of the question that fluids injected underground (in McKean County) can end up in surface water bodies." He, and EPA officials, explained that part of what makes the Onondaga Formation desirable for an injection well is the overlying Marcellus and Middle and Upper Devonian shale formations that should act as a natural confinement zone. "The only way waste brines may end up in surface water is through negligence and/or human error."

Nevertheless, Ari Capotis, northwest regional vice president of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited, said, "Pennsylvania has more flowing water than any other state in the lower 48 — although Oregon would like to argue that point with us — so why you would want to put that water back in with our aquifer does not make sense to me."

Capotis lives in Erie but frequents the region on fishing trips, particularly Kinzua Creek.

"It's a Keystone Select Trout Water, which is really rather special," she said. "Originally that program was only 12 waterways and it has been expanded, but it's still a small list. I don't really know people going to South Dakota as a destination trout-stream location. You're not going to Texas for that, either.

"If you go up into the headwaters (of Kinzua Creek) we have this state fish of Pennsylvania, the brook trout. That's an indicator species — if there's an issue with this well once they begin pumping fluids, brook trout and bug life are going to be the first to be decimated.

"Westline was a Superfund site and we just got it back — it's the recreational jewel of the Allegheny National Forest and now we're going to risk losing it again?

"I get that Pennsylvania was built on industry, but we don't need to keep revisiting the same issues," she continued. "Injection wells are not a long-term solution. We need to come up with a solution that works for everyone, not just the folks who have the means and ability to fight injection wells in their region."

Rustin Lippincott, executive director of the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau, said, "Tourism continues to grow in McKean County and is a cornerstone of economic development. Outdoor recreation is vital to the tourism economy and contributes to jobs and affords us all with a quality of life that relies on our natural resources. It's important to continue to find the balance with business and protecting our way of life and the beauty that is our county."

Diane Caldwell, one of about 40 Cyclone residents appealing Catalyst's permit, said, "I want to know how much the people and wildlife are worth. How much (money) are they going to make that makes us worthless?"