By BETTY RIDGE
Press Special Writer
TAHLEQUAH —
Most northeastern Oklahoma residents don’t give much thought to oil and gas wells, considering them a phenomenon occurring in other parts of the state.
But disposal of the salt water that results from well drilling threatens to come much closer to home, with a proposal to locate a commercial salt water injection well within the Vian city limits. The water would come from the Fayetteville Shale formation, which is in the north-central part of Arkansas.
This proposal was one factor leading the Cherokee Nation to host a two-day educational symposium on water and environmental issues Wednesday and Thursday at the tribe’s community room. A variety of regulatory and tribal experts made presentations on issues affecting groundwater and drinking water.
I-MAC Petroleum Services Inc. has applied for a permit to drill the Vian well. The permit is pending before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Vian town officials also passed an ordinance that would require the Cherokee Nation to permit and oversee the well, if constructed. The well would be along Interstate 40, near the Vian school complex.
Tom Elkins, administrator of environmental programs for the Cherokee Nation, said the presentation was intended to educate people about how such wells operate and how it would be administered.
“This is a very contentious subject, especially in the Cherokee Nation, because we have almost no oil production in the Cherokee Nation. Some people are spooked about it,” he said. “If we have these injection wells, we need to make sure they operate correctly.
“It doesn’t mean we like them, it doesn’t mean we don’t like them. It just means that if they exist within the 14-county boundaries of the Cherokee Nation, we’re going to regulate them,” he said.
Rick Davis, a petroleum engineer with the Environmental Protection Agency, explained that only about 8 percent of the material drillers take from the ground is oil. The remainder is salt water, which must be disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.
In early oilfield days, the salt water was simply directed down a nearby creek or allowed to evaporate in a pond near the well. In the 1980s, federal administrators began requiring other technology. Injection wells pump the water deep into the earth, below the area where people drill for drinking water. The wells also are used in areas where drilling is still occurring, to enhance production.
Davis said if a salt water injection well is properly engineered, properly drilled and properly operated, there would be no problems with groundwater or other contamination.
“Surface casing protects any produced [injection] water from ever getting into the groundwater,” he said.
People expressing concern about the Vian well not only feel the weight of the long-standing controversy regarding disposal of poultry waste from northwest Arkansas, and its effects on the Illinois River watershed, but of an older issue that affected Sequoyah County decades ago.
The old Sequoyah Fuels nuclear plant near Gore, operated by Kerr-McGee, opened in 1983. On Jan. 4, 1986, one worker was killed and 37 workers hospitalized after an overfilled uranium hexaflouride cylinder exploded. Kerr-McGee eventually sold the plant, which closed in 1993.
However, many environmentalists expressed concern about damage from the operation and protested its ongoing production until that time. They also have promoted cleanup of the site.
Charlie Soap recalled the environmental issues raised at the time when he expressed concern about how the salt water injection well, if constructed, would impact the area years down the road.
“I think there is a deep concern for water, whether people realize it or not. It’s really important,” he said. “They’re [concerned citizens] just looking for the truth. They have concerns about the water, and I do, too, because we work for the Cherokee people. Here they [Arkansas] come and want to put some more junk in our area. Remember Kerr-McGee.”
Soap asked why the salt water from Arkansas wasn’t being disposed of in that state, if it is so safe. Arkansas will not allow the salt water injection wells.
Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilor David Thornton asked several questions about problems with injection wells elsewhere, including Wichita, Kan., and near Poteau. He brought material listing the chemicals and harmful metals that could be released into the environment through these wells, including hydrochloric acid, muriatic acid, ammonium persulfate, borate salts, ethylene glycol, and isopropanol.
He said in one instance salt water was injected into a well near the Verdigris River.
“In less than an hour, an old well by there blew out and spread gas,” he said. “It released treatment fluid and methane gas over the area, and caused fires over there. I guess all of these are OK — is that what you’re saying?”
Davis replied that if the injection well is drilled and operated properly, there’s no threat to drinking water.
“If you have unscrupulous operators and people didn’t do their job, write a permit, they can go wrong,” he said. “There are bad things that can happen but they’re involved with unscrupulous operators, not in the engineering. There are always bad stories — I can tell you a bunch of them.”
Responding to Thornton’s question about problems with the well near Poteau, he said: “The commercial well down by Poteau? They made a mistake. We’re shutting them down right now.”
“Again, with all due respect, would you want one of these wells near your own yard?” Soap said.
“Sure, it doesn’t bother me a bit,” Davis said.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission regulates drilling within the Five Civilized Tribes.
Thornton said one Cherokee law prohibits drilling within three miles of a community.
“It looks like they [Corporation Commission] should be thinking about the people of Oklahoma. It seems like they’re just thinking about the money side,” he said.
Corporation Commission representative Tim Baker confirmed the Vian well was proposed for economic reasons, with its access to transportation for the trucks making the trip from Arkansas.
“It was purely economic. They did not think they were going to be protested, to tell you the truth,” he said.
Baker said there are 10,000 injection wells – including 265 commercial disposal wells – in Oklahoma. One is “within a stone’s throw” of the state Capitol. Last year, they were used to dispose of 2.9 billion barrels of water.
Non-commercial wells are required to be tested for structural soundness every five years, commercial wells every year. The property where commercial wells are located must be locked and fenced so illegal disposals cannot be made.
Andrew Yates of the Osage Nation inspects wells within that tribe’s 1.5 million acres. The oil-rich Osage country has 38,000 wells, including 20,000 active ones. The rest are out of operation and plugged. It has 5,000 injection wells, 2,500 of which are active.
He said the wells are inspected regularly, and the Osage Nation requires permitting. A lot of the wells are on the tallgrass prairie owned by the Nature Conservancy. Yates showed slides of buffalo roaming over the area.
The Vian well would be 1,600 to 3,100 feet deep, reaching the Arbuckle formation, which lies just above the granite and is the lowest permeable geological level. It is projected to accommodate 1,680,000 gallons of water, or 40,000 barrels, daily.
“The Arbuckle’s real good for disposal. It takes all you can throw at it,” Yates said. “As long as it’s regulated, I think It’s a very safe way to dispose of it.”
He did say that injection wells have created problems in some areas.
“As I tell the operators, it’s not if you have a problem, it’s when you have a problem,” he said. “Something will happen. It all depends on how they clean it up.”
Thornton also expressed concerns about a fault north of Vian and its possible effect on the operation.
“We do have good water now. Right now, if I go in a store, I’m paying $1.50 for a bottle of water, and that’s a lot higher than gasoline is now,” he said. “We’ve got 13,000 Cherokees in my area, and we don’t want people coming in from Arkansas and dumping their sludge on us. Nobody’s listening to us.”
