Are quakes and fracking connected?

Is there a connection between the controversial natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the extremely rare 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Washington, D.C., and significant sections of the U.S. East Coast on Aug. 23? This is a question many scientists are now asking.

U.S. Geological Survey scientist Mike Blanpied stated that while the drilling process has been linked to very small earthquakes, it has not been known to induce large quakes. However Blanpied admitted that “the thing that can induce larger earthquakes is the high-pressure waste fluid injection that’s done in some places.” (coloradoindependent.com)

Fracking involves the injection of as much as 3 million gallons of chemical-laden salt water deep into rock beds. The fluids are brought back up and stored in surface pits for later disposal, including the reinjection of the waste salt water in separate deep-injection wells. These disposal wells are what prompted investigations by the USGS after rare earthquake swarms in southern Colorado. Just one day before the D.C. quake, a 5.3-magnitude earthquake occurred in Las Animas County, Colo.

In July, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission identified four disposal wells that it recommended shutting down after swarms of earthquakes, as many as two dozen in one day, shook the state in spring 2010. Arkansas ordered a moratorium on new disposal wells. After the ban, earthquake activity dropped by two-thirds.

While no drilling was being done in Mineral, Va., the epicenter of the Aug. 23 quake, it is fairly close to the border with West Virginia, where fracking operations started years ago. In 2010, Braxton County, W.Va., experienced eight smaller earthquakes. (Alternet)

Smaller freak earthquakes have occurred in Texas, western New York, Oklahoma and Blackpool, England, all in the vicinity of waste fluid reinjection wells. A joint study by Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas-Austin found that earthquakes started occurring in the Dallas/Fort Worth region after a fracking disposal well began operating there in 2008, but stopped when it was closed in 2009. (Watershed Sentinel, March/April)

Earthquake experts from the British Geological Survey also linked smaller quakes in the Blackpool area to fracking. “It seems quite likely that they are related,” argues Dr. Brian Baptie from the BGS. “We had a couple of instruments close to the site and they show that both events were close to the site and at a shallow depth.”(priceofoil.org, June 1) Drilling operations there were also suspended.

Concerns have also been raised about potential damage to the expanding network of natural gas pipelines that run through the areas now experiencing quakes.

While scientific evidence is mounting, the oil and natural gas industry, eager to protect the lucrative profits to be made from fracking, has been quick to dismiss the charges. This follows an industry pattern of denying any link between unsafe drilling practices and mounting evidence of contamination of water wells, ponds and rivers in drilling areas. Concerns about the health and safety of residents and workers in drilling areas are also dismissed by the industry, which has been able to buy enough politicians to ensure that serious investigations by government agencies will never be carried out.

But opposition to fracking is growing internationally. With communities and activists protesting quakes in addition to poisoned and polluted water, the industry has a real battle on its hands.