Lochgelly Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Fayette County Considers Oil & Gas Waste Ban

Fayette County Commission will meet next week to consider banning the storage, disposal, or use of oil and natural gas waste.

Community members will present a petition with 5,000 hand-written signatures that support what would be the first county-wide ban on oil and gas waste in West Virginia. It will be the second and final reading of the ordinance. If passed, violations will be punishable by civil and criminal penalties.

The ordinance would shut down underground injection wells, or prevent them from accepting oil and gas waste, including a site that has been fraught with problems operated by Danny Webb Construction in Lochgelly.

The meeting is scheduled for 9am on January 12th and the Fayette County Courthouse in Fayetteville. After the meeting, community leaders will be talking about experiences living near injection well sites, including enforcement troubles they’ve seen.

Mount Hope Bans Drilling Waste Disposal in Injection Wells

Mount Hope has banned disposing oil and gas drilling waste in injection wells that pump the material underground.

Mount Hope Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance prohibiting the disposal of drilling waste in injection wells within the town’s borders.

Mayor Michael Kessinger told The Register-Herald that the ordinance is in response to a disposal site in Lochgelly, which is less than 10 miles from the town.

Kessinger said he hasn’t been able to find out from state regulators whether it’s possible for waste at the Lochgelly site to infiltrate Mount Hope’s watershed.

Mount Hope’s ordinance is modeled after one adopted by Oak Hill.

Property Owners Terminate Lease at Lochgelly

The property owners of a Fayette County injection well site are terminating their lease agreement with the site operator and are asking the state Department of Environmental Protection to also withdraw its permit application.

The North Hills Group owns the Lochgelly site in Fayette County that Danny Webb Construction has been operating two injection wells on. The site collects waste from the natural gas industry and disposes of it underground.

North Hills terminated Danny Webb’s lease this week and is now asking the DEP to withdraw the permit application the company filed earlier this year. A DEP spokesperson says they haven’t received any request from Danny Webb.

Danny Webb Construction was forced to apply for the permits in April after the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board said the DEP violated state law by allowing them to operate two underground injections wells in Fayette County without a permit. The DEP had revoked the company’s permit to inject natural gas drilling waste underground on March 4^th, 2014.

But the DEP allowed the wells to continue operating until the company’s applications to renew the permit were approved or denied.

Lochgelly Public Hearing Set For April

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection announced that a public hearing twice delayed because of bad weather is now scheduled for April 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Oak Hill High School, located at 350 West Oyler Avenue in Fayette County.

The hearing revolves around two permit renewal applications for an underground injection control (UIC) facility near Lochgelly. DEP says public comments will be taken orally and in writing at the hearing and may be submitted in writing through May 1st.

The Backstory

Danny E. Webb Construction Inc. is the applicant looking to renew permits that would allow continued operating of two commercial class II UIC wells that accepts and injects fluids associated with oil and natural gas production. If approved, the permits will be valid for five years.

The DEP ordered Danny Webb Construction to close an above ground waste pit last year. Folks have worried for years that both the above ground waste pit and underground injection well have been leaking oil and gas waste into Wolf Creek, a tributary to the New River. It appears a researcher from Duke University now shares those concerns.

Danny Web Construction’s permit for an underground injection well expired in 2012. The DEP renewed the underground injection well, or UIC, permit in February last year under the condition that Danny Webb Construction close the above ground waste pit.

Representing the Natural Resources Defense Council, The West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, Plateau Action Network and citizen Brad Keenan, Tom Rist with the Rist Law Office filed a letter of appeal. After ‘receiving significant public interest” the DEP revoked the permit soon after.

This past summer the Environmental Quality Board heard complaints against the DEP’s permitting process in this case. The groups point out that despite the permit expiring, and the revocation order, Danny Webb could still collect waste.

The board still hasn’t made a decision in that case and now, in light of the public hearing, it appears the DEP is moving forward in granting the permit. A public hearing is part of the permit issuance process.

Danny Webb Construction Permit Hearing Rescheduled

A public hearing on two permit renewal applications for an underground injection control (UIC) facility near Lochgelly in Fayette County has been rescheduled for Feb. 19, according to a release. The hearing was initially scheduled for Jan. 7 but had to be postponed due to inclement weather conditions.

The hearing is set for 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Oak Hill High School. The DEP is also accepting written comments until March 1.

Background

Residents Remain Worried

The groups remain concerned about potential hazards to public safety. According to court documents, resident Brad Keenan presented results from water samples taken from Wolf Creek in 2007 that showed “high concentration of diesel and other petroleum products”.

In an appellant’s brief filed in September, the Rist Law Office sharply criticizes the DEP for not taking action against Danny Web Construction. Tom Rist points to the DEP’s records as evidence showing the site was out of compliance.

Science Study

The appeal also quotes an environmental researcher and Duke University professor Avner Vengosh saying that samples taken from Wolf Creek, included “elevated levels of several dissolved constituents in water such as chloride, bromide, sodium, manganese, strontium and barium.”

These chemicals are typical of oil and gas wastewater. It’s important to also point out that this site in Fayette County is a commercial disposal well, which means all kinds of liquid industrial waste is brought in from other sites. These underground injection wells accept oil and gas waste from states throughout the region including Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Tourism Trouble?

Finally, groups point out that Wolf Creek is a tributary to the New River, which brings in tourism dollars to the region. The site is also located about a mile from one of the county’s only day care facilities.

Danny Webb Construction did not responded immediately to our request for comment. The public is invited to attend a public hearing to voice concerns or support of the permit, at Oak Hill School tonight at 6:30 p.m.

The DEP says there are currently 14 commercial sites across the state and 33 private disposal wells.

Public Hearing Set on Fayette Waste Wells' Permits

State regulators have scheduled a public hearing on a company’s application to renew permits for two underground injection wells in Fayette County.

Danny E. Webb Construction Inc. operates the wells at a facility near Lochgelly. The wells pump oil and gas drilling waste underground.

The Department of Environmental Protection says it will host a public hearing on the company’s permit renewal applications on Jan. 7 at Oak Hill High School. Written public comments will be accepted through Jan. 17.

Environmental organizations and some residents have said the company has a history of violations and the wells pose a threat to health, water resources and property values.

Webb has said he operated the wells legally.