Lochghelly Injection Well Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Study Finds Potential Health Issues Tied To Wastewater Disposal Site

A report published this week says an oil and gas wastewater disposal site in West Virginia is leaking chemicals that can harm fertility in animals.

The study, “Endocrine Disrupting Activities of Surface Water Associated with a West Virginia Oil and Gas Industry Wastewater Disposal Site” was published online in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment. It looked at water samples collected from a site near Fayetteville. The report indicates that water downstream from the injection well site had significantly more endocrine disrupting activity than water upstream.

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with hormone systems in mammals, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The report shows these disruptors were found above levels known to result in adverse health effects.

Industry groups criticize the report saying it amounts to scientific fear-mongering. They say the levels of chemicals found would have to be much higher concentrations to be considered dangerous to humans.

Fayette County recently banned wastewater injection wells in response to years of contention surrounding this particular site.

W.Va. DEP Shuts Down Danny Webb Construction Waste Site, For Now

The W.Va. Department of Environmental Protection has Statement About Danny Webb waste site in Fayette County. DEP Communications Director, Kelly J. Gillenwater said in an email Friday:

"The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Oil and Gas has shut down operations at the Danny E. Webb Construction Inc. underground injection control facility in Fayette County until further notice. The shutdown, effective immediately, is in response to an April 8 decision by the Environmental Quality Board. The board ruled that a March 2014 order under which the facility was operating was unlawful and gave the DEP 30 days to either issue a new permit or require the operations to cease. Two permit applications from Danny Webb for the facility are currently under thorough review, and DEP is taking into consideration all comments submitted during the public comment period regarding these proposed permits. There is no deadline by which DEP must make a decision whether to approve or deny the applications and the agency has no estimated timeframe on when that decision will be made."

A permit to operate an underground injection well had expired in October 2012 but the operator continued to collect waste.

The underground (UIC) permit was granted February 6, 2014 under the condition that the operator close an above ground pit used to collect fluids from oil and gas exploration, development drilling, and production before being injected into the underground well.

In a letter of appeal filed in March 2014, attorney Tom Rist said the permit did not specify the closure requirements and should have been addressed before granting the permit. The operation permit was revoked in March, but the order still allowed the operator Danny Webb Construction to continue to work at the site.

The West Virginia Environmental Quality Board ruled in April that the Department of Environmental Protection violated state law when it allowed Danny Webb Construction to operate the injection wells in Fayette County without a permit. Danny Webb Construction had until May 8 to issue a new permit or cease operations.

Speakers Rally Against Proposed Fayette Waste Site

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection hosted a public hearing about two proposed waste permits in Fayette County Tuesday night. All but one of about 30 people who who spoke at the hearing opposed the permit.

Danny Webb, the owner of the waste site, stayed for the first part of the hearing, but did not speak publicly.

The majority of the voices behind the podium opposed Webb’s proposed underground injection control permits, frequently to a cheering crowd. This waste site has been a dumping ground for oil and gas waste from sites in Pennsylvania, Virginia and other parts of West Virginia.

Mary Rahall, a Fayette County resident, voices here opinion about the Danny Webb Construction Company’s underground injection well site during a public hearing about the site’s permit renewal by the West Virginia DEP at Oak Hill High School in Oak Hill on Tuesday.

Folks representing Friends of Water, Plateau Action Network, the National Park Service and even the Fayette County Commission asked the DEP to deny this permit.

Gary Zuckett with the West Virginia Citizen Action, also opposed the permit on the record. After the meeting he pointed out that this type of oil and gas disposal is across West Virginia.

“There’s one in the county that I have property in in Ritchie county, and we have problems with that well,” Zuckette said. “So it’s not just a Fayette County problem, it’s a West Virginia problem.”

In 2013, there were 54 non-commercial and 17 commercial disposal wells in the state according to the DEP.

The DEP set up large maps for those attending the hearing to inspect. There was also a court recorder off to the side available for folks who didn’t feel comfortable to speak in front of the energetic crowd.

One man, who didn’t want to give his name, said he worked for Danny Webb Construction but that he and about 25 other workers in the area are now out of work.

But it wasn’t just the company that was fielding criticism and push back, several speakers accused the DEP of failing to represent the people. Earlier this month, the Environmental Quality Board ruled that the state agency tasked with the protecting the environment in West Virginia, violated state law when it allowed Danny Webb Construction to collect waste without a permit.

Danny Webb, owner of Danny Webb Construction Company, listens to Mary Rahall, a resident of Fayette County, voice her opinion about the underground injection site during a public hearing on the West Virginia DEP permit renewal for the Danny Webb Construction Company’s site in Lochgelly at Oak Hill High School in Oak Hill on Tuesday.

The permits had expired in 2012 but was granted in 2014 then after significant public interest, was revoked. The permit the DEP is now considering would allow the company again to accept fluids from oil and gas exploration, development drilling, and production fluids for another five years. The DEP is accepting comments through May 1.

State Board Says Lochgelly Injections Wells Can't Be Operated Without Permit

A state board says two underground injection wells in Fayette County can’t operate without a permit.

The West Virginia Environmental Quality Board says the Department of Environmental Protection violated state law when it allowed Danny Webb Construction to operate the injection wells in Lochgelly without a permit.

The Register-Herald reports that the board issued its ruling on Wednesday.

The DEP had revoked the company’s permit to inject natural gas drilling waste underground on March 4, 2014. But the DEP allowed the wells to continue operating until the company’s application to renew the permit is approved or denied.

The board gave the DEP 30 days to reissue a permit for the wells. The wells must cease operation if they don’t receive a permit.

UPDATE: DEP Postpones Public Hearing Concerning Lochgelly Waste Site

Update Wednesday January 7, 2015 11:46 a.m.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is postponing the meeting due to weather/road conditions. In an email, Kelley Gillenwater with the DEP said,

"Due to the inclement weather conditions in the Oak Hill area, tonight’s public hearing on the Danny Webb UIC permit applications will be reschedule. The date, time and location have not yet been determined but an announcement with those details will be made within the next couple of days."

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection wants to hear what folks have to say about an oil and gas waste site in Fayette County. The permit has basically been in the renewal process since 2012.

Renewal Process

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.

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.

Environmental Quality Board Hears Complaints Against DEP Revocation Order in Fayette County

The West Virginia Environmental Quality Board is reviewing an order issued by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection that revokes a waste disposal permit. Attorney Tom Rist is representing groups concerned about Danny Webb Construction’s waste disposal operation in Fayette County.

Background:

Attorney Tom Rist filed the appeal a couple months ago on behalf of Bradley Keenen, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization, and the Plateau Action Network. The groups have a number of concerns with the revocation order of a permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The operation permit was revoked in March, but the order still allowed the operator Danny Webb Construction to continue to work at the site.

The site of concern is located between Oak Hill and Fayetteville in Fayette County and has been worrying residents for years. It’s located off of a tributary of the New River called Wolf Creek. Some residents are concerned about drinking water contamination while others worry about rafters and tourists who spend time in the waters.

More than 1.5 million barrels (50 million gallons) of waste fluids have already been injected into the Class II Underground Injection Well which is permitted to accept waste fluid from oil and gas industry.

Commercial brine operators such as Danny Webb are required to maintain a manifesting system, which is a log of where wastes originate, according to the DEP. There are also monitoring requirements specified in permits. But Rist and the groups he represents are skeptical about how effective these measures are at protecting public interests.

For years open pits were used at the Danny Webb operation to store waste products before they were injected. Citizen concerns of smells and apparent leaching have surfaced. The DEP’s own water quality tests were presented as evidence in the hearing.

Water quality tests conducted over the past several years, while inconclusive, do seem to indicate increased pollutants introduced somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the aforementioned pits. But experts have indicated that the tests are really inadequate to determine anything other than the fact that the pollutants on the given days did exist, and that they represent minimal exposure risks.

Hearing:

Of the nine issues listed in the appeal, only three will be considered in the final ruling:

The issuance of the DEP’s order which revoked the operation’s permit violates public policy of the state of West Virginia to maintain reasonable standards of security in the quality of water according to the WV Water Quality Control Act and the Groundwater Protection Act.
The revocation of the operation permit allowed the operation to continue.
The proposed well constitutes a hazard to the safety of people, that potential damages would impair a publicly owned resource, and so the measures taken by the DEP fail to protect the fresh water source or supplies in this state.

The ruling from the Environmental Quality Board is expected in the next three months.
*Editor’s Note: West Virginia Public Radio reached out to the DEP for comment on this story, and while they did offer background information, but they do not wish to comment on the hearing until the ruling is finalized.