Official: 4 Ohio fluid-injection wells cannot open in wake of quake

[spanone]

(CNN) -- State leaders have ordered that four fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio will be "indefinitely" prohibited from opening in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, an official said.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well -- which injects "fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains -- was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.

Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011.

Andy Ware, deputy director of Ohio's natural resources department, told CNN on Sunday that Zehringer and Gov. John Kasich subsequently ordered that four nearby injection well projects will not open in the coming weeks, as had previously been planned. They 'll be inoperational until a determination is made in an investigation of a possible link between the earthquakes and the fluid-injection wells, he added.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/01/us/ohio-earthquake/index.html?iref=obinsite

[wordpix]

1. will wonders never cease? The repugs are actually going to study an environmental issue

almost never happens

[limpyhobbler]

2. that's good but the other 180 injection wells in Ohio are still operating.

They might not have caused any earthquakes yet, but they're still toxic for the local water.

[yourout]

3. Wonder how many folks ended up with cracked basements and the like after the quake?

Worse yet how many have contaminated wells.

[moriah]

5. I have a LOT of relatives in Faulkner County, AR....

... who aren't drinking out of their wells either.

Allegedly there's no evidence of groundwater contamination there, but they said the water has definitely changed taste, and is even somewhat stinky to bathe in.

[Kurmudgeon]

4. The Repugs get concerned when things shake them too.