DEP approves waste disposal well

Clearfield officials, residents opposed

Harrisburg Bureau

Pennsylvania now has a dozen active permits for oil and gas wastewater disposal wells after state regulators approved an application for a new well in Clearfield County on Wednesday.

The Department of Environmental Protection gave Windfall Oil & Gas Inc. permission to drill a new well in Brady Township to take liquid waste from producing oil and gas wells.

The Falls Creek, Pa.-based company has had a federal permit for the well since 2015, but it needed a state permit before it could begin operations.

The proposal was opposed by local residents and officials, including city leaders from nearby DuBois and state Rep. Matt Gabler, RClearfield.

The well site is planned for a more populated area than other Pennsylvania disposal wells. There are 14 private water supplies within 1,000 feet of the well, DEP said, but a depth of 6,550 vertical feet separates the geological layer where the fluids will be injected underground from the deepest source of fresh groundwater.

Mr. Gabler sponsored bills in 2013 and 2015 to require disposal wells to be at least 1,000 feet from wells and buildings, but the bills never moved out of committee.

With the permit for Windfall’s Zelman #1 well, DEP has approved five applications for wastewater disposal wells in the last year. As it had with other recent permits, DEP added seismic monitoring conditions designed to ensure early detection of any earthquakes associated with the fluid injections.