Proposed Plum well brings up concerns

Allowing a shale gas wastewater disposal well in Plum would risk costly contamination of the Allegheny River and jeopardize Pittsburgh’s main water source, according to Mayor Bill Peduto and the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority.

In a Feb. 17 letter to Gov. Tom Wolf, Mr. Peduto and PWSA Executive Director Will Pickering said they had “serious concerns” about the Penneco Sedat No. 3A Class II waste injection well. It is located near Pucketa Creek, a tributary that joins the Allegheny 10 miles above the PWSA’s intake pipes for its treatment plant in Aspinwall.

The letter, which was not publicized when it was sent, noted that the plant pumps and treats more than 70 million gallons a day from the Allegheny. It urges the governor to “revise or repeal” the state Department of

Environmental Protection permit for the well issued to Delmont-based Penneco Environmental Solutions in April 2020.

The governor did not respond to a request for comment this week.

The Peduto-Pickering letter followed by a month a similar one from Protect PT, the Breathe Collaborative and Citizens for Plum. ALLEGHENY The community groups also urged Mr. Wolf to nullify the DEP permit, saying operation of the injection well would increase the risk of chemical and radioactive contamination of surface water and groundwater, cause mine subsidence, and increase the risk of earthquakes.

In response to that January letter, signed by 45 environmental organizations and community leaders, the governor’s office said Mr. Wolf doesn’t have the authority to override a DEP decision — but Gillian Graber, executive director of Protect PT, said it seems he just doesn’t want to get involved.

“We think the governor does have the ability to revoke the permit,” Ms. Graber said. “We think the state is playing with fire by injecting fluids into wells that are not pressurized and are not built to be pressurized over and over again, and I’m certain that if this well is allowed to go forward, it could contaminate the river.”

The Sedat well in Plum, which Penneco wants to use to inject shale gas drilling brine more than 1,900 feet underground, was drilled in 1989 into the Murrysville sandstone formation but never put into oil and gas production. Anthony Ingraffea, a Cornell University engineering professor working with the community organizations, reviewed the well and questioned whether its more than 30year- old cement casing could withstand repeated pressurized injections.

“Ingraffea told us the well was not designed to be an injection well, was not designed to accept fluids under pressurized conditions,” Ms. Graber said. “There’s a fatigue effect when you repeatedly bend a piece of metal. Eventually, it breaks.”

Penneco has said the well is structurally sound, noting that all the issues raised in the January letter to the governor had been settled to the satisfaction of the DEP.

Chief Operating Officer Ben Wallace said Penneco began accepting wastewater at the well in December, started test injections in March, and wants to begin commercial operations within a month.

“We understand the concerns of the public. Deep injection wells sound scary to the man on the street, but in reality, injection is the preferred method of disposal favored by the DEP and [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency],” Mr. Wallace said. “In this situation, we’re injecting brine into formations already containing brine.”

The Peduto-Pickering letter focused on the potential risk of costly water source contamination.

“Our customers should not have to foot the bill to remedy issues created by Penneco because it chose a high-risk location for its brine injection well,” the letter says. “In the case of Penneco’s brine injection well, Penneco reaps the reward and the residents of Pittsburgh sustain the risk.”

The PWSA, in an email response to questions about that letter, said its primary concern was related to the potential for contamination of the Allegheny, the water source for 300,000 residents and businesses.

The authority said it had not received a reply from the governor.

“PWSA is not an expert on the breadth and depth of the governor’s authority,” Mr. Pickering wrote, after detailing more than a billion dollars of water quality and system improvements.

“We are obligated to protect our customers from negative water quality impacts and unnecessary costs caused by actionswhich provide no benefit to customers. Every dollar spent on mitigating a negative impact caused by the Plum injection well is a dollar that cannot be spent on projects that will meet the needs of our customers.”

A spokesman for Mr. Peduto declined to comment beyond what was in the letter.

The Penneco Class II injection well — the first permitted in Allegheny County — is one of 13 permitted for disposal of oil and gas drilling and fracking wastewater in the state, according to the DEP. Eight are in operation.

Mr. Pickering said Penneco has other options for locating a shale gas drilling wastewater well and that the company should “shutter” the Plum site.

He said with new information about risks coupled with declining shale gas drilling, the governor may be able to convince Penneco that the Plum well is “at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“There should be balance between the risk and reward for this project,” Mr. Pickering wrote, “and it should not put neighboring communities at risk.”

About 180,000 Class II wells are operating in the U.S., and 36,000 of them, or 20%, are used to dispose of oil and gas drilling and fracking wastewater. The EPA estimates that more than 2 billion gallons of those fluids are injected into the wells each day, mostly in Texas, California, Oklahoma and Kansas.