Ohio Issues Emergency Rules on Underground Injection Control Activities, Effective Immediately
Companies that own and operate Class II disposal wells in Ohio will now have to comply with tougher standards when using deep injection wells for the underground disposal of brine and other wastes, a regulatory change spurred by findings that an injection well in Youngstown may have caused a series of earthquakes in 2011. On July 10, 2012, Governor John Kasich signed Executive Order 2012-09K, ordering that two draft Underground Injection Control rules become effective immediately as "emergency rules." The executive order allows the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management (DRM) to immediately amend applicable state regulations and enforce the new rules, avoiding the typical administrative process of soliciting stakeholder input.
Executive Order 2012-09K provides that Rules 1501:9-3-06 and 1501:9-3-07 are to be immediately amended in order to:
- Outline the tests that an applicant must satisfy in order to obtain a permit to drill and operate an underground injection control well.
- State clearly that the chief of the DRM may withhold authority to inject fluids if the results of required tests are negative.
- Allow the chief to set a graduated maximum allowable injection pressure based upon data obtained throughout the permitting process.
- Allow the chief to require the installation of an automatic shut-off device if the permitted maximum allowable injection pressure is exceeded.
- Require continuous monitoring of the annulus between the casing and tubing in a well.
- Pressure fall-off testing;
- Geological investigation of potential faulting within the immediate vicinity of the proposed injection well location, which may include seismic surveys or other methods determined by the chief to assist in identifying potential faulting within the immediate vicinity of the proposed injection well;
- Submittal of a plan for monitoring seismic activity;
- Testing and recording the original bottomhole injection interval pressure;
- Gamma ray, compensated density-neutron, and resistivity geophysical logging suite on all newly drilled injection wells. All geophysical logs shall be submitted to the division within sixty days of completion of well drilling;
- Radioactive tracer or spinner survey; and
- Any such other tests that the chief deems necessary.
- A fault must already exist within the crystalline basement rock;
- That fault must already be in a near-failure state of stress;
- An injection well must be drilled deep enough and near enough to the fault and have a path of communication to the fault; and
- The injection well must inject a sufficient quantity of fluids at a high enough pressure and for an adequate period of time to cause failure, or movement, along that fault (or system of faults).