On March 21, Fayette County Commissioners voted unanimously to protect the health and welfare of Fayette County residents by restricting oil and gas wastewater injection well development. While the ordinance is not a total ban on injection wells, it is progress toward heavy restrictions on their development.
This move comes after G2 STEM, LLC submitted an application for an injection well in Nicholson Township last July. MWA and other like-minded groups organized with Nicholson Township community members, township supervisors, Fayette County Commissioners, and State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (R-Fayette) to submit their concerns about the well to the US EPA.
Oil and gas extraction wells create wastewater as a byproduct, which contains multiple substances within the water. Once hydraulic fracturing is completed, drilling engineers extract the fluids that are remaining in the well. Some of this recovered hydraulic fracturing fluid is used in subsequent fracking operations, while some of it is disposed of in deep wells.
Concerned citizens of Nicholson Township raised the issue that fracking wastewater can also contain heavy metals, carcinogenic, man-made chemicals, and radioactive materials. They also feared impacts on their quality and the likelihood of water contamination in public and private water supplies.
After the draft amendment was tabled at a meeting in January, MWA managing organizer, Stacey Magda, suggested increasing the setback distance from 500 feet to 2,500 feet. The suggestion was heard, and the approved zoning language includes that increased distance.
βThis is not only a critical step toward protecting Fayette County from injection wells, but one hundred percent the result of local advocacy from residents passionate about their community,β said James Cato, Regional Organizer with MWA.