ODNR permits injection well despite Marietta council opposition

Farm and Dairy
By Liz Partsch
September 3, 2025

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The Ohio Department of Natural Resources approved a new Class II injection well on Aug. 28 despite objections from the Marietta City Council.

The Stephan #1 injection well will be the fifth Class II injection well within two miles of Marietta’s public water supply, which serves tens of thousands of residents in the area.

The city council asked ODNR in a letter dated Aug 8 to deny the permits for Deep Rock Disposal Solution’s new injection well in Marietta, citing concerns about “public health, safety and good conservation practices.”

In recent months, residents in the area have been increasingly concerned about water quality after it was discovered that brine (fracking) waste had migrated away from nearby Class II injection wells into conventional oil and gas wells.

Despite this, ODNR said it approved the permit for the Stephan #1 well as it met all requirements.

“The division reviewed the Marietta City Council’s comments as part of the standard review process prior to making a decision on the Stephan #1 application,” said Karina Cheung, a spokesperson for ODNR, in a statement. “Because the permit request met the requirements of Ohio law and rule, the permit to construct the Stephan #1 well was reissued.”

The letter

The Stephan #1 well will inject 3,000 barrels of waste per day, according to ODNR. It will be the fifth Class II well to inject waste into the Medina Sandstone formation. According to the city council letter, these five injection wells are or will be close to several water aquifers that serve 32,000 residents.

Two of these wells are within 3 miles of the public water sources for at least four different communities, including Marietta, Warren Township and Devola, Ohio, and Williamstown, West Virginia.

City officials say this is too much waste in the same area, which poses a threat to local water sources. The letter cites several instances of brine migration from Class II injection wells in Washington County as an example.

An ODNR investigation in 2019, spurred after two gas well owners found suspected brine waste in their production wells, identified that this waste had migrated from the Redbird #4 Class II injection well into 28 production wells, as far as five miles away. Subsequently, ODNR allowed the well to continue injecting brine waste into a deeper rock formation.

The letter also cites six recent instances, documented in ODNR records, of brine migration from Class II injection wells in southeast Ohio, where the agency halted operations due to the threat of contamination to local water sources. Four of those wells were in neighboring Athens County and two were Deep Rock Disposal wells in Noble County, also a neighboring county.

In Noble County, three instances of “uncontrolled brine migration” from Deep Rock Disposal’s Class II injection wells appeared at nearby gas production wells. In one circumstance, the agency had to pay over $1 million to clean up brine contamination in subsurface water and land. 

In another, brine waste was found “spraying” from a hole in a gas well production casing; the well was over 5 miles away from the Deep Rock Disposal well that brine had migrated from. One of these wells was injecting waste into the Medina Sandstone formation.

The city council letter came after a July 29 committee meeting to learn more about injection wells. Those invited to speak at the informational meeting included ODNR, Deep Rock Disposal, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and government officials, as well as two petroleum engineers, a licensed geologist and water superintendents from Warren and Marietta.

Deep Rock Disposal has a permit to construct Stephan #1; the company will have to apply for another permit to drill the well, according to ODNR.