Laserfiche WebLink
filling the entire wellbore above the solution zone with cement. No subsidence damage, sinkholes, or <br />groundwater impacts are~wn to have been caused by salt extr~ion and cavem development at an}' <br />of the five current facilittes. <br />The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has primacy for implementing the <br />Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program in New York, and has issued Class III UIC permits for <br />all five active solution mining facilities in the state. At the state level, the Division of Mineral <br />Resources within the Department of Environmental Conservatton regulates solution mining wells under <br />the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining provisions of the Environmental Conservation Law. Both Briggs <br />(1996) and Sanford (19966) describe the development of New York's solution salt mining regulatory <br />,_ program. <br />The EPA has also issued a Class III permit to Avoca Natural Gas Storage, Inc. for solution <br />mining to create caverns for natural gas storage in Steuben County, New York. The ultimate disposition <br />of the brine to be withdrawn during cavem development at this facilit}• is unknown at this time. The <br />project's operator has received an Underground Natural Gas Storage Permit from the state along rrith <br />brine disposal well permits from both the state and the EPA. <br />Bath Petroleum Storage, Inc. has submitted an application to the EPA for a Class III UIC permit <br />to solution cavems for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and naturai gas storage at its extstmg LPG facilih~, <br />also in Steuben County. This application is currently undergoing technical review. <br />~~ The state has issued an Underground Natural Gas Storage Permit to New York State Electric aid <br />Gzs for utilization of an existing cavem at Akzo Nobel's active solution mining facility in 1Vatkins Glen. <br />'~ EARLY HISTORY OF SOLUTION RIL\L~'G L\' NEW YOI2IC <br />Commercial salt manufacture in New York began nearly a century before the first solution mining <br />well was drilled. Many authors, including Luther (1896), Weiner (1917), Eskew (]94S), and Sanford <br />(1996a), have discussed Iv'ew York's inland salt manufacturing industr}', which was located primarily in <br />the vicintry of Syracuse and Onondaga Lake beginning in 1790. Inland salt manufacture in New York <br />before 1 S78 was based on evaporation of brine from springs and shallow wells that withdrew brine from <br />unconsolidated sediments or shallow rock formations stratigraphically hundreds of feet above the salt- <br />bearing units. The state of New York controlled salt rights surrounding Onondaga Lake during this time. <br />The state and several salt manufacturers drilled exploratory wells to attempt to locate the subsurface rock <br />salt deposits beginning in 1SZ0. The early search for rock salt, summarized by Sanford (1996a), vas <br />unsuccessful, and it was left to oii and gas prospectors to accidentall}• discover the salt resource. <br />The earliest well «ith a record of having encountered subsurface rock salt vas drilled in Ontario <br />County in ] S65 (Phalen, 1919). In 11,'}~oming County, Vacuum Oil Company in 1 S78 drilled the first <br />~~ell ultimately used for solution mining in New York; the well, knoH~n as the "Pioneer well" vas <br />initiall}' operated for solution mining in 1581 6}• the 1l'yoming Valle}• Salt Company (Vlemer, 1917). <br />The Pioneer well w•as only active for t~~•o }'ears, but solution minmc has taken place contmuousl} in <br />~1'}~oming Counp• ever since that first ~i•ell ryas placed into sen•ice. Texas Brine's modern ~1'}~oming <br />~~illage brine field is located near the site of the Pioneer well. <br />~~ 4 <br />?1 <br />