Staff with the Kansas Corporation Commission are recommending the state agency not reopen applications for over 400 injection wells in the Flint Hills and better than 2,000 all told across Kansas.
The issue of injection wells and permits came up last month. Staff at the Kansas Corporation Commission said over 4,300 injection permits and amendments were filed since October 2008, when the protest period for filed applications was expanded from 15 days to 30 days. However, there were just under 1,100 applications for injection authority affecting over 2,100 wells that saw applications published within the 15-day period. Of those, over 1,000 applications were approved.
Staffers are recommending no action for three reasons: discrepancies between notices as published by operators and legal protest timetables did not violate any KCC regulation, those discrepancies were not “fatal” to the KCC’s jurisdiction or authority to approve the wells and there is no evidence of due process violations.
An investigation was ordered last month leading to the staff recommendation Friday.
The breakdown of affected area injection wells, according to information from the KCC:
*Lyon County: 1 application
*Chase County: 0 applications
*Coffey County: 61 applications involving 394 wells
*Greenwood County: 13 applications involving 14 wells
*Morris County: 1 application
*Osage County: 1 application
*Wabaunsee County: 1 application
Injection wells have become a controversial subject in the Flint Hills, especially after a well was approved near the Humboldt fault zone in Morris County last year. Concerns have been increasing about the potential link between injection well activity and earthquakes, and the United States Geological Survey has said the wells are the probable cause for a recent upswing in seismic activity in central Kansas.
