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Ohio Deep Injection Well Seeks To Reopen After Quakes

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The operator of a northeast Ohio deep-injection well for drilling wastewater that’s been shuttered since it was tied to seismic activity last year is fighting to get the facility reopened.

American Water Management Services asked the Oil and Gas Commission at a Wednesday hearing to lift a state chief’s order that shut down the well at its Weathersfield site, near Warren, last fall.

The order followed discovery by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources of possible evidence that operations of two wells at the site caused a 2.1-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 31 and another tremor in July. The shallower well was found unrelated and allowed to reopen in September.

ODNR spokesman Eric Heis said if the commission upholds the chief’s order, the company may appeal.