Highland Field Service LLC, which operates an injection well site in Brookfield, has “no planned brine injections at this time,” the company said in an email July 1 to Brookfield Trustee Dan Suttles, who released it later that day.
Highland spokesman Rob Boulware said Highland’s parent company, Seneca Resources, “follows a strict zero surface discharge policy and works diligently to treat, recycle and reuse all flowback and produced water.”
Injection wells dispose of the waste water generated from oil and gas drilling, which is called brine, by sending it under pressure deep underground. Highland has two permitted wells on Route 7, north of Wyngate Manor Mobile Home Park, but has not injected in the so-called number 5 well since January, and has not operated the number 4 well, which it received state permission to inject into in June.
The numbers 4 and 5 refer to the number of well drilling permits Highland at one time had for the site. Three drilling permits have expired.promo
“Injection is used when other options are not available,” Boulware said. “At this time, water that may have been destined for disposal is being treated and reused in Seneca’s drilling program.”
Earlier this year, the number 5 well partially caved in more than 7,000 feet down, and Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Adam Schroeder said June 28, “It looks like it’s gonna need some additional work before it can operate again.”
The number 4 also has problems, but they are unrelated to the actual drilled well itself, Schroeder said. Instead, they are electrical, he said.
“As soon as they can get this technical issue fixed, they can inject,” Schroeder said.