NW Pa. Injection Well Leak Went Undiscovered for 109 Days
MDN is going to eat some crow with this story. In 2016, we called attention to efforts by neighbors (and anti-fossil fuelers) in Warren County, PA, in testing water sources near a wastewater injection well that had been operating since 2013 (see Concerned Citizens Test Water Near NWPA Injection Well, No Leaks). There had been no leaks from the Bear Lake Properties Bittinger #4 oil and gas wastewater injection well site in Columbus Township for (at that time) three years. We pointed out that injection well leaks are rare. However, there has been a leak at the Bittinger #4 well, and it was a doozy, traveling approximately 1,770 feet from the well site. That’s a full one-third of a mile. Not good. Even worse is that the company (due to an errant employee) failed to report the leak to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for 109 days. Read More “NW Pa. Injection Well Leak Went Undiscovered for 109 Days”
In January, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a plan by Catalyst Energy to convert an existing conventional gas production well on Route 646 in Cyclone (Keating Township, McKean County, PA) into a shale wastewater injection well (see 
It’s good to revisit the basics from time to time. When drilling a shale oil or gas well, each well produces “brine,” a super-salty (minerally) water from the depths that keeps flowing long after the well is drilled and is online. This is not surface water; fresh water found down to about 300 feet. This is another layer of water thousands of feet below the surface. Disposing of brine can be a problem given the minerals in it. A lot of brine is recycled and used again for new drilling and fracking. But what happens when drilling slows down? The water continues to flow out of existing wells and needs proper disposal. Researchers at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, may have a new solution. 
In January, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a plan by Catalyst Energy to convert an existing conventional gas production well on Route 646 in Cyclone (Keating Township in McKean County, PA) into a shale wastewater injection well (see 
In late July, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) opened up the shuttered Austin Master Services (AMS) radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, to begin cleanup work at the facility (see 
We spotted a report about an aboveground pipeline that flows shale wastewater that sprung a leak and released an estimated 12,600 gallons of brine (salty water from deep below the surface) on the ground in Gilmore Township, Greene County, PA. The pipeline is owned by EQM Gathering, another name for Equitrans Midstream, which is now owned by EQT. The leaking pipeline connects to the Trust Well Site owned by EQT. It sure sounds like a serious spill (12,600 gallons) with the potential to contaminate local water supplies—until you dig into the state Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) report on the incident. 
The Fairmont Brine Processing plant, located at 168 AFR Drive in Fairmont (Marion County), West Virginia, was constructed between 2009 and 2010 by AOP Clearwater LLC. The plant was acquired by Fairmont Brine Processing (FBP) in 2012. FBP began pre-treatment operations at the site in 2013 and fully operated the plant beginning fall of 2014. In May 2017, MDN reported that FBP was not paying some of its vendors (see 
Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, has idled one of its three plants, the Standing Stone plant in Bradford County, PA. According to an inspection report by the Department of Environmental Protection conducted on August 19, Bob Cooney, Vice President of Operations at Eureka Resources, told the DEP inspector that the facility’s “primary customer” had stopped sending wastewater to the plant. As a result, all plant employees were laid off as of approximately July 30. This morning, MDN spoke to Eureka CEO Dan Ertel about what’s going on at the plant and plans for the future. 
In April, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending operations of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy (see 
In March 2021, Eureka Resources announced plans to build a Marcellus Shale wastewater treatment facility in Dimock (Susquehanna County), Pennsylvania (see 
Last week, MDN exclusively brought you the news that the CEO of American Environmental Services, which owns Austin Master Services (AMS), had filed a brief with Belmont County Court to either forgive or reduce a $1.2 million bond needed to keep the CEO, Brad Domitrovitsch, out of jail (see 
Yesterday, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) opened up the shuttered Austin Master Services (AMS) radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, to begin cleanup work at the facility. One contractor began working at the site, while a bunch of others did a “pre-bid walkthrough” to look at what is there to make bids for cleaning it. AMS is permitted by the ODNR to temporarily store up to 600 tons of fracking waste, like drill cuttings and wastewater. ODNR estimates there are some 10,000 tons of fracking waste at the site. AMS ran out of money, and vendors quit accepting the waste. After failing to meet a court-ordered July 22 deadline, ODNR stepped in to handle the cleanup.
As we have been reporting, Austin Master Services, a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, that handles fracking waste (trucks it for disposal), ran into trouble when it ran out of money. The facility where waste is temporarily stored went from a permitted maximum of 600 tons of stored waste to over 10,000 tons, in violation of its permit. The Ohio Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against the company to force compliance. As is always the case, there are two sides to every story. The side of AMS and its owner, Brad Domitrovitsch, is not getting much media coverage. We have an update on Brad’s side of the story…
Austin Master Services (AMS) is a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio. The Ohio Attorney General lodged charges against AMS in March, accusing the company of storing 16+ times more drill cuttings at the facility than it’s rated for (see 
In early June, the owner of Austin Master Services (AMS), American Environmental Partners (AEP), sent a press announcement to MDN to announce he had found a buyer for AMS (see