As if radioactive wastewater, exploding wells and flammable tap water weren’t bad enough, fracking has now been tied to another environmental threat – earthquakes, thousands of them. Geologists have tied fracking wastewater disposal wells in central Arkansas to an outbreak of more than 1,200 so-called “minor earthquakes” (an oxymoron if ever there was one). At least one startled resident is suing the responsible gas companies for the significant damage one of those earthquakes caused to his home.
The good news is common sense has prevailed in Arkansas. According to the Democrat-Gazette, the state’s Oil and Gas Commission has voted to ban fracking wastewater disposal wells within a 1,150-square-mile area north of Conway in the Fayetteville Shale region. According to the Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS), the fracking operations were taking place on top of an active fault line.
So much for environmental impact studies.
Before the ban was instituted, a months-long moratorium had been in place while geologists determined whether the fracking operations – conducted by BHP Billiton Petroleum, Chesapeake Operating and Clarita Operating – were indeed causing the tremors. AGS official Scott Ausbrooks reports that a lattice of subsurface cracks and fissures provided passageways for the fracking fluids to reach the fault and cause the earthquakes. The quakes, all registering below 4.7 in magnitude, began rolling across the countryside after the injections began. After the operations stopped, the number of earthquakes dropped by two-thirds.
For those of you who have been living on another planet, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is an ultra-aggressive and highly controversial process for extracting natural gas from rock formations deep beneath the earth’s surface. The process injects enormous volumes of pressurized fluid – water, sand and a mixture of toxic chemicals like benzene and xylene – into the ground to release natural gas from shale deposits, like Fayetteville Shale in central Arkansas.
One of the big environmental concerns surrounding fracking is how to dispose of the millions of gallons of toxic wastewater the process produces. The oil and gas industry has been grappling with the disposal piece of the puzzle for years. Water treatment facilities don’t have the capability to remove all the toxins – including naturally occurring radioactive material like radium – from fracking wastewater.
So what to do?
Increasingly, gas companies are drilling what are known as injection wells, or disposal wells, to house the radioactive wastewater in underground chambers. Think of these wells as much smaller versions of the now-defunct Yucca Mountain disposal ground in the Nevada desert. Gas companies drill deep wells and then inject the wastewater with the assumption that it will be safely contained in these subterranean vaults (which is an issue for another day).
It’s important to note that Arkansas isn’t the only place fracking has been tied to earthquakes. Just ask residents of the seaside city of Blackpool, England. From a July 28 Wall Street Journal piece:
Mark Miller was hoping to lead an energy revolution in the U.K. Then, earthquakes intervened.
Mr. Miller, an oil-industry veteran from Pennsylvania, is one of a small band of pioneers seeking to replicate North America’s shale-gas boom in Europe. His company, Cuadrilla Resources, has imported a technology used to great effect in the U.S. to try to turn Blackpool, a seaside resort on the west coast of England, into a new Klondike for gas.
…After months of cajoling, Mr. Miller, a 57-year-old petroleum engineer, finally thought he had managed to persuade the locals that fracking was safe. Then, this spring, the area around Blackpool was shaken by two tremors. After the second one, Cuadrilla suspended its fracking operations, pending an investigation.
…The quakes left Blackpool-area residents “angry and distressed,” says Philip Mitchell, chairman of the local Green Party. “They’ve told me they feel like guinea pigs.”
The fracking-earthquake connection is yet another example in a long line of very real risks the controversial extraction process poses to the public and the environment. It also demonstrates the urgent need for full environmental reviews before fracking operations are conducted.
For the time being at least, common sense has prevailed in Arkansas. We’ll see how the rest of fracking states fare as injection wells become the last best method of disposal for hundreds of millions of gallons of highly toxic fracking wastewater.
Read the AP report on the situation in Arkansas: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/27/3250640/ark-commission-votes-to-shut-down.html
Here’s the full WSJ story on fracking earthquakes in the UK: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904233404576457872933709438.html
Read up on the state of fracking in Arkansas here: www.stoparkansasfracking.org
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