A change of venue will be requested for a permit hearing for a proposed commercial injection well, which will allow I-Mac Petroleum Services Inc. of Muskogee to dispose of salt water waste near the Vian city limits and Vian Public Schools.

The Class II underground injection well will allow oil and gas waste from drilling to be disposed of underneath the ground.

State Sen. Jim Wilson (D-Tahlequah) called a meeting Thursday to support Vian citizens opposed to the well.

Matt Skinner, public information manager for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission along with several representatives from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, attended the meeting. Richard Grimes, attorney representing I-MAC, and Greg Riepl, geologist for I-MAC, explained and answered questions at the meeting.

Vian Mayor Kenneth Johnson told the Oklahoma Corporation Commission representatives that he will request a change of venue for the permit hearing on the proposed saltwater injection well. As of now, the permit hearing is scheduled at First Floor, Jim Thorpe Building, Oklahoma City at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Grimes said legislation requires the commission hearings to be held at the Jim Thorpe Building or in Tulsa at the corporation commission office. “Motion to change venue has to be argued to a judge,” Grimes said.

“It isn’t right that our concerned citizens that would like to voice their opinion at the hearing will be unable to do so because of the distance they will have to travel,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of concerned citizens here and they want to be able to express their concerns.”

About 80 residents from Vian and the surrounding area attended the two and half hour meeting that was held at the Vian High School Auditorium at 6 p.m.

All of the citizens who attended the meeting opposed the commercial injection well. Most wanted the well to be somewhere else and not near Vian.

“It seems odd they want to put this so close to a school. Some of our kids could throw a baseball to that site. I’m concerned with the unknown verses the proximity and the students’ and future students’ health,” David Vinson, Vian High school principal, said.

“We’ve had our share of problems. We were once promised and reassured Sequoyah Fuels would be safe and everyone saw the outcome of that. We don’t want to take another chance,” one concerned citizen said.

I-MAC filed an application with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to open a well near the southeast city limits of Vian. The permit requests permission to dispose of 40,000 barrels (1,680,000 gallons) of salt water a day, under 1,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, measured at the surface. The salt water will be injected into a zone in the Arbuckle formation at a depth of 1,600 feet at the top and 3,100 feet at the bottom.

“Forty-thousand barrels is a calculated amount, we will probably never do anything close to that amount,” Riepl said.

The first question posed was, “What good would the well do for the town of Vian?” Grimes said he could not make a prediction about what kind of economic impact that it will have on Vian.

“The purpose of the injection site is to dispose of salt water waste produced from oil and gas wells,” Grimes said. “It may have a small impact if the drivers and workers stop at the convenience stores to purchase gas or to get food.”

Riepl introduced a chart showing the designs of the proposed injection well.

“The corporation commission set regulations and we have to follow the regulations set. There is a well in Vian that is drilled to at least 250 feet. The corporation commission people decided 300 feet would be the base for treatable water for this area. We are required to set our surface casing 50 feet below that level,” Riepl said.

“The first thing I-MAC will do is drill a 350 feet hole in the ground then run steel casing down that hole and cement all the way back to the surface. It is a requirement of the commission to protect fresh water resources in the area,” Riepl said.

According to a 1994 Oklahoma Corporation Commission brochure passed out during the meeting, “Every well must be encased with oilfield grade steel cemented at least 50 feet below the base of treatable water. Every well must have steel casing cemented at least 250 feet above the highest injection perforations. Fiberglass tubing or oilfield steel must extend down 50 feet of the highest injection perforations.”

According to the next paragraph in the brochure, “The tubing and pack confine fluids, which are continually monitored at the injection pressure gauge. Underground sources of drinking water are further protected by the tube casing, which is continually monitored at the pressure gauge, which should read zero or a constant design pressure. Every five years and every time the tubing is pulled, a mechanical integrity test is performed to check the pressure ensuring that there is no leakage.”

Riepl said, “The Arbuckle formation is a massive rock formation almost 2,000 feet thick in this area. We expect to encounter the Arbuckle formation between 1,400 to 1,600 feet.”

“We will drill 1,500 feet of the Arbuckle formation. After that is done, we will run another casing through the hole, then we will cement that back to the surface as well,” Riepl said. “The first and second casings will protect the fresh water resources.”

He said there are 257 commercial disposal saltwater wells in Oklahoma.

“None of these have created a problem. They have to be managed properly,” Riepl said.

The facility will have eight tanks. It will be designed so if there is ever any occurrence of saltwater on the surface it will drain back into the facility. Riepl said, “There will be no surface contamination.”

“I know a lot of people have concerns that the water will find its way back to the surface,” Grimes said. “Over 90 percent of water beneath our feet is salt water.”

“The amount that will be disposed off will be like taking a couple of barrels of water and dumping them in Lake Tenkiller. There’s very little likelihood of this ever reaching the surface. If there was a possibility, it would already be here,” Riepl said.

When the question was asked of Wilson if he would want an injection well put in his backyard he said, “No, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with one of these wells being placed near my home.”

Dora Lee, Vian resident, asked whose idea it was to bring the injection well to Vian.

Riepl said for a variety of reasons Vian was chosen.

“We settled on this site because of geological reasons and the easy access from I-40,” he said.

Another concern was about Lake Tenkiller, the Vian Wildlife Refuge and Vian Public Schools being within a close proximity to the injection site. “What if it leaks?” someone asked.

Grimes said the injection site would be supervised.

He said, “Leaking or spilling over is not likely. There will be a manager on site 24 hours a day. It will always be supervised.”

He said I-MAC requires commercial facilities to be mechanically tested every year.

“We look at the pressure on these wells,” Riepl said.

“So there is no sampling? What about sampling the water from each truck that comes in?”, a resident asked.

Skinner said that commission field inspectors, not disposal site operators, take the samples from wells and other disposal sites that are used to verify what was disposed of. The commission employs about 50 field inspectors.

While injection wells are uncommon in Sequoyah County, they are quite common in other parts of the state. Skinner said the state currently has 10,426 active injection wells, and the total drilled, including inactive wells, is 25,207.

Skinner said in a recent telephone interview that an administrative law judge working for the commission would make the first ruling on the well. Anyone can submit information for consideration. Skinner said comments can be sent to him, and he will see that it is made a part of the case record. His e-mail address is m.skinner@occemail.com, and the postal address is Oklahoma Corporation Commission, 2101 N. Lincoln Blvd., Room 310, Oklahoma City, Okla. 73105.