Vian, Cherokees fight waste-well plan

TULSA WORLD by: SUSAN HYLTON World Staff Writer Sunday, December 27, 2009 12/27/2009 VIAN — The Town of Vian and the Cherokee Nation are asking the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to overturn a decision that re- commends approval of a commercial disposal well in the city limits. I-MAC Petroleum Services of Muskogee is seeking to construct the well for disposal of salt water that comes from the natural gas drilling process at wells in Arkansas. Greg Riepl, a geologist for I-MAC, said that Arkansas doesn't have a lot of underground rock formations that are conducive for water disposal. "Arkansas put a moratorium (on salt water injection wells) until they can gin up some regulations," because some of the gas companies were not following the existing rules, Riepl said. Ideal sites for injecting salt water are thick formations that are porous and permeable so that fluids can move through them, Riepl said. -MAC's application is to inject as many as 40,000 barrels of salt water a day into the Arbuckle limestone formation at a depth of 1,400 to 1,600 feet. Riepl said they will probably come closer to injecting about 10,000 barrels a day. One truck carries about 120 to 160 barrels of salt water. Riepl estimated about four to five trucks an hour coming to the Vian well. Kathleen McKeown, an OCC administrative law judge, recommended approval of I-MAC's application, finding it to be in compliance with all rules and regulations. The appeal seeks a hearing before the three elected members of the OCC, Dana Murphy, Jeff Cloud and Bob Anthony. Concerns included the potential for underground water contamination, being 600 feet from the K-12 Vian school system as well as its close proximity to residences and businesses, property value loss, noise and odor, the origin and content of the injection fluid, its close proximity to the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge and the Arkansas, Canadian and Illinois rivers. Concerns also included the potential for another contamination event similar to that of the former Kerr McGee Sequoyah Fuels, a uranium conversion facility, about six miles west of the proposed well. McKeown said in her re- commendation that those concerns were "extremely valid" but outside the jurisdiction of the OCC, which grants permits based on suitability of the formation, injection depth, analysis of area fresh water and disposal fluid and proposed disposal well schematics that show that groundwater is being protected. Riepl said I-MAC will be regulated by the OCC and will not cause problems like Sequoyah Fuels did. The Sequoyah Fuels plant closed in 1993 after numerous environmental violations. One employee died and dozens were hospitalized in 1986 when a cylinder containing uranylfluoride, a uranium compound, and hydrofluoric acid, ruptured. Much of the contamination there dealt with radioactive leakage from storage ponds. Cleanup efforts under the direction of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are ongoing. "I know these folks are afraid of what we're doing," Riepl said. "It grieves me these people are so upset because it really isn't going to be a problem. "I agree that the well at Sequoyah Fuels was a terrible place to put a well of that nature. Geologically that facility is a lot different than ours. A lot of the rocks there were closer to the surface and most of the contamination problems over there were surface ponds." The saltwater injection wells are very useful from an environmental standpoint because they provide a location to dispose oil field waste rather than dumping it into a creek or bar ditch, Riepl said. But many residents, such as Lacey Horn, are not comforted. "This is a shallow well — 1,600 feet is nothing when you compare it to other states," Horn said. Injection wells in Arkansas range from 2,500 to 8,700 feet deep, records show. "My main concern is contamination. There's radioactive material (at the Sequoyah Fuels site). If a well like this goes in that's just going to flush all that stuff to the surface," Horn said. "I fear for my community. I don't feel like it's fair we should suffer the consequences of a big waste dump like this." This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it