It's a niche industry of its own in more than one sense of the word.  The Vienna Well is only one of two such wells commercially operated in Michigan.  The other is located near Houghton Lake.  Well numbers three and four are waiting for permits in Pinconning and Romulus--the later for hazardous wastes.

    As a Class I disposal well, Northeastern Exploration's site is approved through the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to accept a wide variety of dilute wastewater solutions including salt water brines, heavy metal solutions, agricultural runoff and landfill leachate among others.

    "The...well was originally completed in 1986 as a Class II salt water disposal well," said Ken Cooper, reservoir engineer for Petroteck Engineering Corporation, a Denver consulting firm for Northeastern.  "In the well, shallow underground water is protected by four layers of steel pipe, three layers of cement and a pressurized annulus (water column) to ensure the operation is in compliance with the law."

    The Northeastern well gained its Class I certification in 1997, requiring two independent permits, one from each of the state and federal agencies.  It undergoes annual inspections by both the DEQ and EPA and last year was subject to a surprise onsite inspection.

    Twenty-four hour computer monitoring of injection pressures and flow rates translate into monthly reports to both agencies.

    Ray Vugrinovich, geology specialist with the DEQ Geology Survey Division, visited the well earlier this year and said, "according to their records and records they keep from the EPA, the Northeastern well has never had a problem.

    "The thing we look at that's important is pressure," Vugrinovich said.  "By setting the maximum pressure we essentially limit the amount injected."

    MOST recently, the Forward Corporation of Standish disposed of more than 107,000 gallons of contaminated water from its Shell gas station on Old 27 South in Gaylord.

    "It's on a vacuum," said Dennis, explaining how the weight of the liquid stored in six, 16,000 gallon tanks forces fluid underground.  "The underground is like a sponge."  The well is capable of accepting up to 20,000 gallons of liquid per hour.  It typically operates at half that rate for parts of each day.

    That sponge is located in the Dundee Formation, a porous and permeable limestone layer at depth of 2,328 feet --1,500 feet below any useable water.  The rock layer is capped by Fell Shale and Traverse Limestone.  Twenty-four hour monitoring is required to verify safe operation and compliance with state and federal laws.

    "There have been hundreds of thousands of trucks that have unloaded successfully," Hall said on a tour of the facility.  Trucks driving into the site follow a gravel road loop to the back of the six storage tanks where they unload.  The waste is transferred from one tank to another until it reaches the final tank before flowing underground.  All of the intervening pipes run above ground for immediate identification of any leaks.  The tanks sit in a dike system designed to hold three times the volume of the tanks in case of a breach.

    "I believe this is the best technology available," said Hall.  "This is the only method that's 100-percent effective without affecting another natural resource."

    Information provided by Petroteck on Northeastern's web site at http://northeastern.bizland.com describes the concentrations of material similar to mixing two gallons of waste in 4,000 gallons of water.  Typically the products are low concentration waste streams composed of 95 percent water.

    "We have to do laboratory work on anything we accept," said Dennis.  Hall, with a brown, tightly capped sample bottle in hand, used landfill leachate as one example of fluids of which they dispose.  Leachate is the fluid  created when rain water filters through a landfill.  It's eruptive power and stench testify to its potency.

    As a function of their permit, the Halls were required to get the name of every well owner in a five mile radius.  Hall cites information that should put any well owner at ease.  Pumping at capacity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for 20 years, the resulting plume, he said, would only extend out in a radius to 850 yards.

    "There's not a well in the country that's doing that," said Cooper, calling it a "wild, worst case" scenario.  Under average flows, he said the plume would not likely extend beyond 150 yards.  "It's pretty small when you start thinking about it."