Court order to restart Weathersfield injection well raises contempt issue
In a terse response to state regulatory authority's request to delay her order to reopen a Weathersfield brine injection well, a judge has ordered the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management to begin the process needed to restart the well, and be prepared to explain why it shouldn't be held in contempt.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - In a terse response to state regulatory authority's request to delay her order to reopen a Weathersfield brine injection well, a judge has ordered the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management to begin the process needed to restart the well, and be prepared to explain why it shouldn't be held in contempt.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Kimberly Cocroft on Monday denied a motion from the division to place a stay on her December 23rd order while it appeals her decision giving the state regulators thirty days to issue an order allowing American Water Management to resume operations at its number two well in the township.
The well is one of two along Route 169 used to dispose of oil and gas drilling waste that were shut down by the division following a 2.1 magnitude earthquake on August 31, 2014.
Geologists have linked deep injection wells to seismic activity in some rock formations.
The division, which a division of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, allowed a shallower well to reopen, but has kept the second well closed for what it said was in the interest in public safety.
American Water Management filed a successful appeal, obtaining an order from Judge Cocroft giving the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management thirty days to issue an order initially limiting the volume, amount of saltwater and brine that is being put into the well.
The judge's December order also mandated that American Water Management and the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management develop a plan to restart the well which included incremental increases in volume and pressure while monitoring seismic activity.
Noting what she characterized as the “late nature” of the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management's appeal, Judge Cocroft denied the request without even waiting for American Water Management to file its response.
In her order, Judge Cocroft writes, “The Court ordered the parties to each submit a proposed entry 'setting forth that the division should have made to restart #2 Well,' within 30 days. Now four days before the parties' proposed entries are due, the Division filed the instant motion to stay. In the Court's opinion, this course of conduct along discourages a finding that a stay is justified"
The judge said that the division's arguments for the stay were the same ones she overruled in December.
Judge Cocroft concluded by ordering the division to comply with her December order and said it should be prepared to show cause as to why it should not be held in contempt.
Judge Cocroft's order may be read here