USGS FINALLY ADMITS THAT FRACKING CAUSES EARTHQUAKES
It has taken years to finally admit it, but the U.S. Geological Survey has just confirmed that three million Americans are at risk from human-induced earthquakes caused by wastewater disposal, a process in fracking, in 2017.
The study was focused on the U.S. Central East, primarily on Oklahoma and Kansas, who don’t normally get large earthquakes. Due to wastewater disposal however, their risk is now equal to that of California.
“Between 1980 and 2000, Oklahoma averaged about two earthquakes greater than or equal to magnitude 2.7 per year. However, this number jumped to about 2,500 in 2014, 4,000 in 2015 and 2,500 in 2016. The decline in 2016 may be due in part to injection restrictions implemented by the state officials. Of the earthquakes last year, 21 were greater than magnitude 4.0 and three were greater than magnitude 5.0,” the USGS said.
The report concluded that wastewater disposal from fracking is triggering larger quakes, and the drop of larger quakes is due to restrictions on fracking.
“Wastewater injection may have decreased in 2016 as a result of new regulations for its disposal, or slowed due to lower oil prices and less overall production,” the USGS said.
During the fracking process, wastewater is disposed of by injecting it deep into underground wells at high pressure. That water fills up dormant faults, causing tectonic plates to slip which enables the quakes, according to the USGS.
“Earthquakes have been linked to oil and gas activity for more than five decades, but in recent years the rate of tremors has shot up across the United States in areas where drilling and waste from the production occur,” Bill Ellsworth Stanford University geophysics professor said.
In 2015, the Oklahoma government’s energy and environment cabinet introduced a website dedicated to the evidence that fracking causes earthquakes.
“Oklahoma experienced 623 magnitude 3+ earthquakes in 2016, 903 in 2015, 579 in 2014 and 109 in 2013,” the website stated.
Even Oklahoma’s Governor Mary Fallin has acknowledged that the wastewater disposal process in fracking may be the cause of Earthquakes.
In 2015, Fallin called the Oklahoma Geological Survey’s endorsement of that relationship “significant” and stated that the state was dealing with the problem.
During the same year, the USGS found that manmade earthquakes were being caused in eight states including – Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Besides the unpredictable tremors from manmade earthquakes, there is another danger from fracking.
That other danger is methane venting and leakage, which the EPA has downplayed according to a whistleblower who claimed that at least one EPA researcher accepted payments from the oil and gas industry.
“There has been a persistent and deliberate cover-up that has prevented the agency from requiring the natural gas industry to make widespread, urgently needed and achievable reductions in methane venting and leakage (’emissions’) across the nation’s expanding natural gas infrastructure,” NC WARN wrote.
“Dr. David Allen, then-head of EPA’s Science Advisory Board, has led an ongoing, three-year effort to cover up underreporting of the primary device, the Bacharach Hi-Flow Sampler, and a second device used to measure gas releases from equipment across the natural gas industry. Allen is also on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been funded by the oil and gas industries for years.”
Additionally, North Carolina’s senate has banned disclosure of the chemical that is used in fracking under the Energy Modernization Act in 2014. Under the bill, disclosing the chemical is a Class I felony, punishable by months in prison.
According to the American Petroleum Institute (API) the Fracking fluid is more than 99 percent water and sand. The other chemicals are alleged to be ethylene glycol, borate salts and isopropanol, while the rest are trade secrets, the API has said.
Two states have officially banned fracking – New York and Maryland. Maryland is limited until later this year, while New York is permanent.
A seven-year study conducted in New York found that “fracking’s effects on water, air and soil are inconsistent, incomplete and raise too many red flags,” prompting their ban.
Obama used executive authority to ban new Atlantic and Arctic offshore drilling in federally owned waters shortly before leaving office, using the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a 1953 law that allows a president to put certain waters off-limits to oil and gas production companies.
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What a load of junk you peddle! From the very first sentence it is obvious that this article is a fraud. “It has taken years to finally admit it, but the U.S. Geological Survey has just confirmed that three million Americans are at risk from human-induced earthquakes caused by wastewater disposal, a process in fracking, in 2017.”
The problem, as any informed reader will note, is that wastewater disposal is not fracking. Period. End of story. Most water used in wastewater disposal doesn’t even come from fracking operations. But even if it did, the point remains that fracking is not the same as disposal, and fracking certainly doesn’t require wastewater injection.
Hi Bill. Wastewater injection causes the quakes. Fracking wastewater is one source, but the type of oil being brought up comes with a disproportionately large amount of water which includes the chemicals they put down there to bring it up. No other method of disposal, eg. trucking away, open air containment pits, are economically or environmentally feasible. The current method is used because it is the only one they can use and still make money. Your comments seem to be a distinction without a difference. Janis
Janis, you are incorrect when you say that no other method is economically feasible. In fact, large volumes of wastewater are recycled and reused in fracking operations. My comments are hardly a distinction without a difference. The author of these piece used a highly deceptive headline (ie. a lie) because the USGS has not said that fracking is responsible for earthquakes, in fact the USGS says just the opposite: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/myths.php
“The report concluded that wastewater disposal from fracking is triggering larger quakes, and the drop of larger quakes is due to restrictions on fracking.”
Bill, you obviously have not read the link from USGS, that tells it is the first time their charts show risk of earthquake caused by humans. The top of this article tells, that wastewater disposal is part of the proces of fracking. As hydraulic fracking requires huge amounts of water, the producers off cause face a huge problem of where to dispose of the residue water that is heavily filled with chemicals.
Bill is no doubt working in the industry in one way or another and fears for it’s future.. carry on with reality.
Anna, I’m not sure what link you’re referring to, but this one from the USGS is clear that fracking doesn’t cause earthquakes, that wastewater is produced by many sources other than fracking, and, in the case of Oklahoma, only 10% of the wastewater injected is from fracking.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/myths.php
I’m not a proponent of fracking, but the article above claiming that the USGS admits fracking causes earthquakes is clearly misleading.
If you look at the links at bottom of the page in the link I posted above you will find the following article which does admit that fracking causes earthquakes:
https://profile.usgs.gov/myscience/upload_folder/ci2015Jun1012005755600Induced_EQs_Review.pdf
Read the whole article before drawing any conclusions about it though. They’re pretty clear that increase in seismicity is due to wastewater injection, and most of that is from other industrial sources, not fracking:
“Although enhanced oil recovery and hydraulic fracturing
have been implicated in some recent seismicity, studies indicate
that the majority of the increase in seismicity is induced by the
deep disposal of fluids produced by oil and gas production
(wastewater disposal). Hydraulic fracturing does not play a
key role in the increase in that (1) hydraulic fracturing does
not typically induce felt earthquakes; (2) in Oklahoma, the location
of the largest increase in seismicity, spent hydraulic
fracturing fluid does not represent a large percentage of the
fluids comprising disposed wastewater; and (3) oil produced
from many fields with large volumes of produced water did
not involve any hydraulic fracturing. Similarly, enhanced oil
recovery does not play a major role in the increase in seismicity,
likely because operators attempt to keep fluid pressures in the
reservoir balanced with the fluid pressure prior to production.
Accordingly, wastewater disposal is responsible for
inducing the majority of the earthquakes. Increased fluid pressure
is the probable driving mechanism to induce earthquakes,
and of the three aforementioned processes, wastewater disposal
wells can raise fluid pressures more, over longer periods of time
and over larger areas, than either of the other injection
methods.”
And methane “is part of the process of” raising livestock, especially cattle. So should we also ban beef because of its POTENTIAL side-effects??
“…wastewater disposal is not fracking.”
I guess you could say flushing isn’t pooping either.
When you introduce ‘water’ underground where it’s not supposed to be, whether waste or otherwise, you’re going to get an earthquake. The largest dam they built in China in the last ten years on the Yangtze River has experienced earthquakes since that weren’t there before.
Obviously, you understand next to nothing about fracking, which *does* require a huge amount of water, which is then poisoned and creates a serious disposal problem.
I suppose you think pipelines create a lot of jobs and they don’t leak too.
I also suppose you also think the oil is used in this country and not shipped to foreign countries.
smh…. A brain is a terrible thing to waste, please educate yourself.
Good Job on the article, if folks need a general understanding of fracking, an informative option below.
https:// en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
Enjoy the income from trollery, you dipshit. Water injection wells ARE a byproduct of fracking, you jackass. Either you are terminally stupid or you are a troll. There IS no reason for injection wells to exist other than to get rid of fracking wastewater, which kills livestock or people who ingest it.
Do your research. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6142/1225942
Dutchsinse.com vindicated…!!! This earthquake forecaster has been one of the voices attempting to be heard regarding fracking and earthquakes. Check out his livestream (youtube) 10pm CMT to see the progession of earthquakes across the plates (how long til the professionals agree this happens…lol..?)…
I’m of the simple thought that if any studies that are done and show that the use of chemicals that end up a threat to the earth and a process of fraking, and all that is relevant to any problems, then shouldn’t we stop all the activities that cause us any harm? If this is causing our earthquake frequencies and production of dangerous gases, methane, shouldn’t they cease? No amount of oil and gas, and money are worth selling away our earth! We know a better way! Renewable Resources, Solar, are the way! There is No Planet B! Just saying.
You have blinders on Alicia. Without fossil fuels large segments of the world’s population would die. Renewables will not provide a reliable energy source to meet our needs for a long, long time, if ever.
You know just a thought..As a very young man I always wondered how the tectonic plates operated and moved over and under each other without getting stuck as little as they actually do, this sticking and sudden jerking motion is or seems to be a major contributor to large earthquakes, right? Well it would seem to me that crude oil a natural lubricant when removed from the process and equation would definitely be a contributor to something not sliding smoothly…trillions and quadrillions gallons of natural lubricant removed from a stress point seems to me would be a human caused problem? Or not? Just wondering!
Here’s the USGS website showing recent earthquakes. Years ago there were no significant earthquakes in the Midwest and Eastern US. Look at it now; you can see where fracking occurs in Oklahoma. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22autoUpdate%22%3A%5B%22autoUpdate%22%5D%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22feed%22%3A%227day_m25%22%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-65.5129625532949%2C-262.265625%5D%2C%5B72.39570570653261%2C-7.03125%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%5B%22plates%22%5D%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3A%5B%22restrictListToMap%22%5D%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22timezone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%5B%22map%22%2C%22list%22%2C%22settings%22%5D%2C%22timeZone%22%3A%22local%22%2C%22event%22%3Anull%7D
Boy, you really need to better research this. The USGS site clearly states that it is wastewater disposal wells that cause the earthquakes and not fracking. “Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes. Wastewater disposal is the primary cause of the recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States.” https://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/myths.php The State of Oklahoma says that less than 10% of the wastewater comes from fracking. “In many locations, wastewater has little or nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing. In Oklahoma, less than 10% of the water injected into wastewater disposal wells is used hydraulic fracturing fluid. Most of the wastewater in Oklahoma is saltwater that comes up along with oil during the extraction process.” https://earthquakes.ok.gov/faqs/ For everyone saying Dutchsinse claimed this, you are wrong. He clearly says it’s from fracking and it is clearly not. I don’t know how it can be stated much more clearly than I have stated here and linked to the appropriate places.