A Kansas resident fighting proposed wastewater injection wells has stumbled onto a mistake in permitting by the Kansas Corporation Commission.
Cindy Hoedel of Matfield Green was poring over the requests of companies when she found the operators had not accurately informed nearby residents of their rights to protest the wells. Now the KCC is figuring the next step according to a report on the Kansas News Service and KCUR Radio.
“Our legal staff is looking at that issue right now to see what the options are,” KCC spokeswoman Linda Berry told the KNS. But Hoedel thinks the mistakes are enough to bring the well operations to a halt.
“Obviously if they’re not properly permitted they should be stopped. That just seems very basic to me,” she said.
Berry said it’s not clear yet why the permits were granted for six wells in Cowley, Greenwood, Linn, Miami and Sheridan counties. It also appears eleven other well applications also are flawed but those wells have yet to be approved by the Commission.
The apparent mistake concerns the requirement that a company has to publish a public notice in a local newspaper informing residents about the well. Under the KCC rules and regulations, residents have 30 days to protest.
Hoedel reviewed several well applications and found that the company notices only gave residents 14 days to protest.