While Murrysville officials might revisit the ordinance they approved this month regarding injection wells, several of the concerns expressed by residents and council members appear to be addressed through existing laws and regulations.

Staff and council have been working on the specifics of an ordinance to add injection wells to Murrysville’s code that regulates drilling and related operations.

The ordinance, which council approved at its Aug. 16 meeting, allows injection wells on properties zoned for business. It requires groundwater testing before and after operations. Wells must be on properties of 5 acres or more, and bore holes cannot be closer than 250 feet to a property line, or 750 feet from a protected structure with a waiver from the structure’s owner.

Laura Vincenti recently moved to Murrysville from the South Hills and has worked for years in Washington County, where the fracking industry is more prevalent.

“I’m familiar with the effects and danger when things go wrong in the fracking industry,” Vincenti told council. “Injection wells affect our entire community, certainly our children but also our elderly population.”

Vincenti said she is disappointed the ordinance does not require a bond to be set aside to ensure wells are plugged when they are no longer in use.

“Unplugged wells can leak contaminants into the air and leach them into groundwater,” Vincenti said. “And the longer it’s left idle, the greater the risk of well casing failure that could have drastic effects on a community.”

According to Ben Wallace, CEO for oil company Penneco Environmental Solutions, existing state and federal regulations already address bonds.

“With traditional wells, you have to have a blanket bond,” Wallace said. “Unconventional wells are a little more stringent. And when you apply for an injection well, you have to calculate the plugging cost and then post a surety bond for plugging of each injection well. They have the most restrictive requirements.”

Tom Pike, a Murrysville native from Forest Hills, said he is disappointed the ordinance doesn’t include a requirement for drilling operations to add liability insurance.

“I drive a car,” Pike said. “I have to carry liability insurance, and I’d like to think I’m a little less dangerous than a heavy industrial facility.”

Wallace said existing regulations don’t specifically address liability insurance, “but I can’t imagine anyone not carrying it.”

“I don’t know how you could be a sizable corporation and do business without it,” he said.

Murrysville Councilman Mac McKenna said well plugging is his largest concern.

“If a company went under, or something went awry and they just walked away and left an open well — I think there needs to be some kind of safeguard in place for that,” McKenna said.

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection estimated the average cost of plugging a well is about $30,000.

A DEP report issued at the end of 2022 said state inspectors found, between 2017 and 2021, the most frequent violation was the failure of drillers to plug wells no longer in use. Unplugged wells made up more than 3,000 of 16,000 total violations during the five-year span studied in the DEP report.

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