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This is a recently drilled injection well in Putnam county. We visited the facility and took photographs in 2013 and feel that this facility design should be a model for similar Class 2 facilities in the state. The site is in the Amherst Plymouth Wildlife Management Area, about 3/4 of a mile from the gate.
We have a YouTube video showing this well's facility. Photos taken at the same time appear below.
Well drilled in 2008 for injection.
Formation into which waste is injected -- Big Injun
Geographic location: latitude 38.529284, longitude -81.838173
Documents
April 2016 inspection report -- MIT failure reported
Goggle Earth Imagery
View of facility with tank battery in cement secondary containment. Truck is inside gate on cement unloading pad.
We visited the site in September 2013:
The site is entirely fenced. This photo is taken from the hillside looking down. Access to the well is also limited by a locked gate at the Wildlife Management Area entrance. Citizens can use the management area for hiking or hunting but are not allowed to take vehicles into the area.
This photo is looking approximately north. The entrance gates are to the right. There is a cement unloading pad, a work area and then 6 large tanks within secondary containment.
The site had good signage. This is one of the two signs on the fence.
The unloading area is surfaced with cement and sloped with curbs so that spilled material enters a sump below the steps (barely visible to the right, just behind the black barrels).
The wellhead was plainly visible.
On top of the wellhead there was a pressure gauge facing the work area for monitoring injection pressure.
There was also another gauge below and behind the wellhead. This appears to be the gauge for measuring the annulus pressure.
The work area had a steel grate so any spilled fluids went into a sump. The rubber hose/pipe connecting the pump to the wellhead is in the foreground. Hoses used by the trucks to unload are placed after unloading so their ends point to the grate.
The pump is in the foreground -- possibly 3 stages.
Other equipment in the work area includes tall vessels that might be filters.
Between the work area and the tanks is a sump. The tank containment, sump and work area is entirely constructed of cement.
The 6 tanks are connected with a gantry/walk.
The secondary containment appears to be adequate. It should be able to hold the contents of the largest tank -- not all the tanks. There's no possibility of spilled fluids contacting the ground.
This photograph was taken looking south along the fence. We didn't smell any odors at the site, even though a vac truck had been at the site just before we arrived.
Underground Injection Control Class 2 Wells
Introduction to Class 2 Wells in West Virginia
Collected documents and information for a number of Class 2 disposal wells and secondary recovery area permits
Searchable tables for UIC inspections, UIC permitting and MITs based on a copy of the Office of Oil and Gas' online UIC databases made in 2016.
Background materials related to West Virginia's primacy (including the primacy application), EPA guidance documents, and a lot more.
Select wells which present important issues
A UIC well constructed without any cement behind the steel casing strings to protect groundwater.
A commercial UIC well where activity on the site contaminated groundwater.
A UIC well whose use led to earthquakes in the area.
Gas Well Study is the examination of natural gas wells in West Virginia.
Underground Injection Control Class 2 Wells
These wells are used either for the disposal of oil and gas liquid waste or for the enhanced recovery of oil or natural gas.
Gas Well Study Site Visits
Annual reports, environmental assessments, and individual well information.
YouTube Videos
Select videos from the Gas Well Study YouTube channel.
What Happened at Fernow
An investigation into what caused the vegetation death in the land application area after landspraying hydraulic fracture flowback waste.
The Spill at Buckeye Creek
An investigation into a spill from a Marcellus well site into Buckeye Creek in Doddridge county.
The Details
Plunger Lift Technology on Gas Wells
Fluids Brought to the Surface during Production
Plugging a Well
How To Read a Lab Report
Information the Completion Report Provides
Casing and Cementing