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Permalink Reply by John P on April 10, 2012 at 11:48am

Am I reading this correctly ? If a property has a disposal well, it cannot be used as a horizontal drilling site...what about neighboring properties, how would they be affected?

Permalink Reply by Utica Shale on April 10, 2012 at 3:53pm

John,

 

 From ohio.gov ...

 

 What is a Class I Well?

  Class I wells inject hazardous and non-hazardous wastes into deep, isolated rock formations that are thousands of feet below the lowermost underground source of drinking water. Class I injection wells inject far below the lowermost aquifer. Injection zones typically range from 1,700' to more than 10,000' in depth. The injection zone is separated from any aquifers by an impermeable “cap” rock called the confining layer, along with additional layers of permeable and impermeable rock and sediment

 

 Where do the injected wastes go?

  Wastes placed in the injection interval displace the salty ground water or brines naturally contained in the pores of the rock formations near the wellbore. With continued injection, the brines are pushed farther from the well by the enlarging plume of wastes which is roughly cylindrical in shape. As a simplified example, an injection interval one hundred feet thick and containing ten percent pore spaces, would accept nearly 60 million gallons within a five hundred foot radius of the well.

 

 The first paragraph answers the DEPTH question and the second paragraph answers the WIDTH question.  So, a Disposal Well can be above, at or below the Utica / Point Pleasant layer?  I calculate that a 500' radius circle to be about 18 acres. I could not find any info regarding migration of the waste fluid into a neighboring property over a long time period or not.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Finnbear on April 11, 2012 at 2:06am

Thanks Utica, I was going to dig that out and post it when I read yesterday's responses but I got tied up with other things. It is always better to deal in facts.