Class II injection wells in Kentucky -- An update of the map service of wastewater, brine-disposal, and enhanced-recovery wells in Kentucky

Abstract

Following creation of a map service providing information on Kentucky's Class II injection wells, new data have been made available and integrated into the online map through permits issued by the Kentucky Division of Oil and Gas for proposed injection well locations, and by the release of new information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Administrative data identified an additional eighteen injection wells now cataloged into the Class II database, seventeen permitted or recompleted as brine disposal wells and one permitted for enhanced recovery.

Monthly operations data (casing pressures and injection volumes) for selected active Class II wastewater wells covering a five-year period (2008-2012) were compiled from yearly records and examined during the course of a multistate research investigation of brine disposal in the Northern Appalachian Basin. Subsequent to that study, injection volumes reported on a yearly basis were later released for 25- and 30-year periods for brine disposal and enhanced recovery wells, respectively. Analysis of this longer term injection history has identified increases in both disposal and recovery operations over the past fifteen years.

Active injection zones include shallow Pennsylvanian sandstones to deeper Ordovician Knox Group porous dolomites and sandstones. Recently permitted injection wells are also targeting Cambrian Copper Ridge Dolomite (Lower Knox Group) and Conasauga Group intervals.

Kentucky has requested and received tentative approval for oversight (primacy) over Class II injection wells. Approval should result in more timely access to data for map service updates and in monitoring ongoing injection activity.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90258 © 2016 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Lexington, Kentucky, September 25-27, 2016