On 5 November an earthquake measuring 5.6 rattled Oklahoma and
was felt as far away as Illinois.
Until two years ago Oklahoma typically had about 50
earthquakes a year, but in 2010, 1,047 quakes shook the
state.
Why?
In Lincoln County, where most of this past weekend's seismic
incidents were centered, there are 181 injection wells, according
to Matt Skinner, an official from the Oklahoma Corporation
Commission, the agency which oversees oil and gas production in
the state.
Cause and effect?
The practice of injecting water into deep rock formations
causes earthquakes, both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Geological
Survey have concluded.
The U.S. natural gas industry pumps a mixture of water and
assorted chemicals deep underground to shatter sediment layers
containing natural gas, a process called hydraulic fracturing,
known more informally as "fracking." While environmental groups
have primarily focused on fracking's capacity to pollute
underground water, a more ominous byproduct emerges from U.S.
government studies - that forcing fluids under high pressure deep
underground produces increased regional seismic activity.
As the U.S. natural gas industry mounts an unprecedented and
expensive advertising campaign to convince the public that such
practices are environmentally benign, U.S. government agencies
have determined otherwise.
According to the U.S. Army's Rocky Mountain Arsenal website,
the RMA drilled a deep well for disposing of the site's liquid
waste after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "concluded
that this procedure is effective and protective of the
environment." According to the RMA, "The Rocky Mountain Arsenal
deep injection well was constructed in 1961, and was drilled to a
depth of 12,045 feet" and 165 million gallons of Basin F liquid
waste, consisting of "very salty water that includes some metals,
chlorides, wastewater and toxic organics" was injected into the
well during 1962-1966.
Why was the process halted? "The Army discontinued use of the
well in February 1966 because of the possibility that the fluid
injection was "triggering earthquakes in the area," according to
the RMA. In 1990, the "Earthquake Hazard Associated with Deep
Well Injection--A Report to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency" study of RMA events by Craig Nicholson, and R.I. Wesson
stated simply, "Injection had been discontinued at the site in
the previous year once the link between the fluid injection and
the earlier series of earthquakes was established."
Twenty-five years later, "possibility" and 'established"
changed in the Environmental Protection Agency's July 2001 87
page study, "Technical Program Overview: Underground Injection
Control Regulations EPA 816-r-02-025," which reported, "In 1967,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) determined that a deep, hazardous waste disposal well at
the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was causing significant seismic events
in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado."
There is a significant divergence between "possibility,"
"established" and "was causing," and the most recent report was a
decade ago. Much hydraulic fracturing to liberate shale oil gas
in the Marcellus shale has occurred since.
According to the USGS website, under the undated heading, "Can
we cause earthquakes? Is there any way to prevent earthquakes?"
the agency notes, "Earthquakes induced by human activity have
been documented in a few locations in the United States, Japan,
and Canada.
The cause was injection of fluids into deep wells for waste
disposal and secondary recovery of oil, and the use of reservoirs
for water supplies. Most of these earthquakes were minor. The
largest and most widely known resulted from fluid injection at
the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colorado. In 1967, an
earthquake of magnitude 5.5 followed a series of smaller
earthquakes. Injection had been discontinued at the site in the
previous year once the link between the fluid injection and the
earlier series of earthquakes was established."
Note the phrase, "Once the link between the fluid injection
and the earlier series of earthquakes was established."
So both the U.S Army and the U.S. Geological Survey over fifty
years of research confirm on a federal level that that "fluid
injection" introduces subterranean instability and is a
contributory factor in inducing increased seismic activity." How
about "causing significant seismic events?"
Fast forward to the present.
Overseas, last month Britain's Cuadrilla Resources announced
that it has discovered huge underground deposits of natural gas
in Lancashire, up to 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in all.
On 2 November a report commissioned by Cuadrilla Resources
acknowledged that hydraulic fracturing was responsible for two
tremors which hit Lancashire and possibly as many as fifty
separate earth tremors overall. The British Geological Survey
also linked smaller quakes in the Blackpool area to fracking. BGS
Dr. Brian Baptie said, "It seems quite likely that they are
related," noting, "We had a couple of instruments close to the
site and they show that both events occurred near the site and at
a shallow depth."
But, back to Oklahoma. Austin Holland's August 2011 report,
"Examination of Possibly Induced Seismicity from Hydraulic
Fracturing in the Eola Field, Garvin County, Oklahoma" Oklahoma
Geological Survey OF1-2011, studied 43 earthquakes that occurred
on 18 January, ranging in intensity from 1.0 to 2.8 Md
(milliDarcies.) While the report's conclusions are understandably
cautious, it does state, "Our analysis showed that shortly after
hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring,
and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough
to be located."
Sensitized to the issue, the oil and natural gas industry has
been quick to dismiss the charges and deluge the public with a
plethora of televisions advertisements about how natural gas from
shale deposits is not only America's future, but provides jobs
and energy companies are responsible custodians of the
environment.
It seems likely that Washington will eventually be forced to
address the issue, as the U.S. Army and the USGS have noted a
causal link between the forced injection of liquids underground
and increased seismic activity. While the Oklahoma quake caused a
deal of property damage, had lives been lost, the policy would
most certainly have come under increased scrutiny from the legal
community.
While polluting a local community's water supply is a local
tragedy barely heard inside the Beltway, an earthquake ranging
from Oklahoma to Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas
is an issue that might yet shake voters out of their torpor, and
national elections are slightly less than a year away.
Source:
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/U.S.-Government-Confirms-Link-Between-Earthquakes-and-Hydraulic-Fracturing.html
By. John C.K. Daly of
http://oilprice.com