Is hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, to blame for this cluster of earthquakes?

This is one of those stories that seems like something out of a science fiction novel but in fact it’s real life. Over a recent 24-hour period in and around Irving, Texas between Dallas and Fort Worth there were a bundle of earthquakes. And by bundle, I mean 11. The quakes ranged in magnitude from 1.7 to 3.6, according to EcoWatch.

The quakes were felt in metro Dallas where hundreds called 911 in fear. With more than 20 quakes since last September, it’s no coincidence that the area sits on top of a natural gas rich and heavily fracked shale deposit. Many researchers think hydraulic fracturing is to blame.

“The upsurge in quakes started in Texas around the time the oil and gas boom took hold several years ago,” reported StateImpact Texas. “The number of recorded earthquakes (most larger than 3.0) has increased tenfold since a drilling boom began several years ago. The Lone Star State is now one of the shakiest in the country, coming in sixth in the continuous U.S. for having larger quakes last year.”

In fact, the number of earthquakes in an area that rarely saw them before has increased by tenfold since the fracking boom began.

“It’s premature to speculate on the cause of this current series of seismic events,” said Brian Stump, Albritton Chair of Geological Sciences at Dallas’ Southern Methodist University (SMU), in a statement reported in the Dallas Morning News yesterday. “We’re just getting started. We want to support the local community in understanding these earthquakes, and the team appreciates the cooperation of the city of Irving, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and IRIS [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System] in helping us get the best information possible.”

According to StateImpact Texas, the earthquakes aren’t caused by the drilling used in hydraulic fracturing, they result from the disposal wells located thousands of feet under the ground. These wells store drilling fluid, a chemical-laced water encased in concrete.

“The model I use is called the air hockey table model,” Cliff Frohlich, a research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin said to StateImpact Texas. “You have an air hockey table, suppose you tilt it, if there’s no air on, the puck will just sit there. Gravity wants it to move but it doesn’t because there friction [with the table surface].” But if you turn the air on for the air hockey table, the puck slips.

“Faults are the same,” he says. If you pump water in a fault, the fault can slip, causing an earthquake.

“Scientists in my community know that injection can sometimes cause earthquakes,” Frohlich says.

What’s crazy is that more people aren’t nervous that manmade earthquakes seem to plague heavily fracked areas leaving residents wondering what the heck is going on.

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New York state’s environmental commissioner Joseph Martens said he will ban hydraulic fracturing in New York. The decision comes in response to a 5-year study done by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Martens says that the practice of high volume hydraulic fracturing will be prohibited.

“I will then issue a legally binding findings statement prohibiting (fracking) in New York state at this time,” Martens said at Governor Andrew Cuomo’s year-end cabinet meeting.

State health commissioner Howard Zucker gave a detailed presentation on why fracking was too risky for the state. Zucker said he would not allow his family to drink tap water in an area where there was fracking.

“The bottom line is we lack the comprehensive longitudinal studies, and these are either not yet complete or are yet to be initiated,” Zucker said, reported on Syracuse.com. “We don’t have the evidence to prove or disprove the health effects. But the cumulative concerns of what I’ve read gives me reason to pause.”

Zucker said that the study showed the harmful impacts of fracking and additionally, there were not enough longterm studies to know what would happen in the future. Martens named a variety of reasons for the ban including the potential pollution of groundwater and the release of methane and ozone.

Governor Cuomo said he would defer to Martens with regards to the decision though he expects lawsuits to be filed as a result of the prohibition.

According to the report:

“The overall weight of the evidence from the cumulative body of information contained in this Public Health Review demonstrates that there are significant uncertainties about the kinds of adverse health outcomes that may be associated with HVHF, the likelihood of the occurrence of adverse health outcomes, and the effectiveness of some of the
mitigation measures in reducing or preventing environmental impacts which could adversely affect public health,” Zucker wrote. “Until the science provides sufficient information to determine the level of risk to public health from HVHF to all New Yorkers and whether the risks can be adequately managed, DOH recommends that HVHF should not proceed in NYS.”

The long awaited study which led to the ban will be released at the end of December.

I’ve written before about the environmental concerns with fracking. For example, the chemicals used in fracking can be mixed with gas and released into the environment in the form of methane. Not to mention that the heavy duty equipment used to fracture wells may cause devastation to delicate eco-systems. Like in Oklahoma, for example, where 2,500 earthquakes are being blamed on fracking and the destruction of rock formations.

“I will be bound by what these experts say because I am not in a position to second guess them with my expertise,” Cuomo said. “I am not a scientist.”

So at least in the near future, New York state residents caught a break. No fracking in this great state.

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It’s called hydraulic fracturing or fracking for short and it consists of fracturing rocks with a pressurized liquid by injecting a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into deep rock formations in order to allow gas reserves to migrate to a well.

As of 2013, at least 2 million gas wells in the U.S. had been fractured and these wells makeup 43 percent of oil and 67 percent of natural gas production in the U.S.

In the 1980s, environmental concerns emerged around ground water contamination caused by gas and fracturing chemicals making their way into deep aquifers. Recently two Stanford researchers, Dominic DiGuilio and Robert Jackson, discovered that fracking takes place dangerously close to aquifers thousands of miles below the surface. These aquifers have been categorized as safe for humans but what if they became contaminated with carcinogens and neurotoxic chemicals without us even knowing it?

Los Angeles Times reports:

DiGiulio and Jackson plotted the depths of fracked wells, as well as domestic drinking water wells in the Pavillion area. They found that companies used acid stimulation and hydraulic fracturing at depths of the deepest water wells near the Pavillion gas field, at 700 to 750 feet, far shallower than fracking was previously thought to occur in the area.

“It’s true that fracking often occurs miles below the surface,” said Jackson, professor of environment and energy at Stanford. “People don’t realize, though, that it’s sometimes happening less than a thousand feet underground in sources of drinking water.”

There’s also the concern that fracking chemicals injected into rocks will then mix with gas and once used may be released into the environment in the form of methane. Additionally, the heavy duty machinery used to fracture wells may cause destruction to eco-systems and landscapes. Like in Oklahoma, for example, where 2,500 earthquakes are being blamed on fracking and the destruction of rock formations.

What if these earthquakes happened in vulnerable places like the airport? Random, I know, but it could actually happen. Now Pittsburgh International Airport is diving into the fracking business. Consol Energy will set up right alongside the airport parking lot this month. The gas deposits are a mile directly below the airport. Is this the best place to be injecting and extracting volatile chemicals?

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Apparently everything really is bigger in Texas, even the hypocrites: The head of the biggest natural gas producer in the U.S. is suing to keep hydraulic fracturing (fracking) out of his own backyard.

When we imagine anti-hydraulic fracturing activists, a well-suited executive from the fossil fuel industry almost never enters the picture. That’s why many are reeling after the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, had joined his neighbors in a lawsuit designed to halt nearby hydraulic fracturing operations.

Before we get all excited and start pointing fingers, it’s important to examine the details. Tillerson’s move isn’t motivated by fears of what hydraulic fracturing will do to the air, water, and soil, as some reports have implied. It’s aimed instead at blocking construction of a water tower that’s necessary for fracking operations to continue (hydraulic fracturing requires a huge amount of water). Viewed in this light, Tillerson’s move is more of a strange showing of solidarity between residents of what I can only imagine is a very well-manicured neighborhood in Bartonville, Texas.

As the Wall Street Journal reports: “[Tillerson] and his neighbors had filed suit to block the tower, saying it is illegal and would create ‘a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,’ in part because it would provide water for use in hydraulic fracturing.”

“Tillerson’s attorney told the Journal he had no concerns about fracking-related traffic and rather was simply opposed to a water tower hovering over the 83-acre horse ranch he and wife Renda, a former competitive barrel jumper, share,” explains The Dallas Morning News.

So, a rich guy is more concerned about preserving his view than protecting his water supply–so what? Well for one thing it’s a direct contradiction of rhetoric the fossil fuel industry has forced down the throat of communities from Pennsylvania to California: hydraulic fracturing is harmless, non-disruptive and healthy for everyone.

Unless you’re a wealthy oil baron with lots of clout in your small Texas town. Then it becomes unsightly, a nuisance, and a threat to property values. Whether or not Tillerson says it out loud or not, at the very least hydraulic fracturing disturbs the peace–of the environment, wildlife, and anyone else who happens to be living nearby. No one should be forced to acquiesce these things to the fossil fuel industry just because there’s profit to be made. Whether you’re a stay-at-home-mom or the CEO of ExxonMobil.

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