Matt Skinner, Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) public information officer, announced Thursday that I-MAC Petroleum Services Inc., through the company’s attorney Richard Grimes of the Grimes, Anderson and Day law firm in Edmond, requested the application be dismissed. Skinner said he did not know why the company asked the application be dismissed.
He said, “The request for dismissal was made to the commission referee who now has the case before her. She is going to recommend the request be granted. The case will not be closed until the commissioners approve a final order authorizing dismissal of the case. A final order has not yet been drafted.”
In an e-mailed message to those interested in I-MAC’s proposed well in Vian, Skinner said, “Bottom line: There will not be a well, the matter is closed.”
Grimes was unavailable Thursday for comment, and did not respond to a message left by Your TIMES.
Vian residents and officials, Cherokee Nation tribal council members and other area residents were opposed to I–MAC’s proposed well and were fighting the proposal at the OCC level, with plans to take their case further if necessary.
Lacey Horn, a Vian resident, actively opposed the saltwater disposal well, and wrote to local newspapers that over 800 Vian residents signed a petition opposing the well.
Horn wrote that the concerns of Vian residents were about the proximity — less than 1,000 feet — of the well to Vian School; the possible disturbance of radioactive wastes at Sequoyah Fuels by injecting saltwater waste deep into subterranean shale layers; the pollution of the air, soil and water that may result; pollution from trucks hauling waste in the forms of odor, gas and noise; the origin and content of the substance to be disposed of; and the loss in real estate values.
The saltwater disposal wells are one way to dispose of unwanted materials from natural gas wells. The materials — saltwater and sludge — are injected into manmade wells or, in the case of the sludge, is spread on fields, a practice which those in the natural gas energy field say is non-polluting.
Others disagree.
Sallisaw Concerns
Sallisaw City Manager Bill Baker said he visited with Horn Thursday, and she informed him that a proposed wastewater well north of Sallisaw could possibly compromise Brushy Lake.
In April Panther Gas LLC of Oklahoma City applied for a waste disposal permit from the OCC. Panther Gas expected to search for natural gas on property north of Sallisaw that may be in the Brushy Lake watershed, which is Sallisaw’s sole source of water. The property on which the saltwater disposal well will be located, if approved, is 5.8 miles north of downtown Sallisaw and about three-quarters of a mile west of U.S. Highway 59, on county road E 1020. The legal publication notes that the bottom of the well will be 1,850 feet deep and the top of the well will be at 850 feet.
Seth Loomis, company agent, said Panther Gas LLC intends to dispose of a maximum 8,000 barrels of saltwater a day at the site, under 300 pounds of pressure per square inch at the surface. Loomis said a natural gas well has already been drilled but is not producing yet.
“It’s a fairly common thing,” Loomis said, to have a disposal well near a gas or oil well.
Baker said he was unaware the proposed disposal well might be in the Brushy Lake watershed, but he would investigate the possibility.
“We will gather as much information as we can and try to attend the hearing,” Baker said Thursday.
A hearing on a motion to set cause for a hearing on the Panther application was to be held Monday, but, Skinner said, the OCC judge was unable to attend and the hearing was rescheduled. It will be held at 9 a.m. June 28 in Oklahoma City.
Baker said, “We are going to contact the (OCC) attorney Keith Thomas who is over this area and find out if we can still file a protest or if it’s too late to protest.”
Baker said city officials will be doing the research on the possibilities that the wastewater well can damage Brushy Lake water.
“We are going to find out as much information as possible and determine what to do about it,” Baker concluded.
