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State Appeals Ohio Judge’s Ruling On Brine Injection Well

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The state is fighting a judge’s ruling that had allowed the pumping of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing operations to resume at an injection well shut down in 2014 because of two small, nearby earthquakes.

The Ohio Division of Gas Resources Management appealed Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft’s decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

Cocroft ruled in December that state regulators had the authority to shut down the well operated by American Water Management Services after earthquakes were detected below ground in July and August of 2014.

But Cocroft said the state should have allowed the company an opportunity to resume pumping operations at lower pressures and volumes and ordered negotiations for a reopening to begin.

The well is in Weathersfield Township, near Youngstown.