Breaking Quaking News: Ohio Finds Fracking Waste Injection Well Caused 12 Earthquakes:
A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth, Ohio oil and gas regulators said Friday as they announced a series of tough new regulations for drillers.
These quakes weren’t caused by the original fracking itself – releasing natural gas (or oil) by injecting a fluid mixture into the earth. It was caused by a Class II disposal well used to reinject the resulting brine deep underground. That reinjection is banned in some states.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has issued a
preliminary report “on the relationship between the Northstar 1 Class II disposal well and 12 Youngstown area earthquakes” (
news release here). They spell out what happened and the steps they will take to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Specifically, ODNR found:
Geologists believe induced seismic activity is extremely rare, but it can occur with the confluence of a series of specific circumstances. After investigating all available geological formation and well activity data, ODNR regulators and geologists found a number of co-occurring circumstances strongly indicating the Youngstown area earthquakes were induced. Specifically, evidence gathered by state officials suggests fluid from the Northstar 1 disposal well intersected an unmapped fault in a near-failure state of stress causing movement along that fault.
As fracking has exploded onto the science, it has increasingly been connected to earthquakes — see my November 2011 post,
Shale Shocked: “Highly Probable” Fracking Caused U.K. Earthquakes, and It’s Linked to Oklahoma Temblors.
Here are some of the steps ODNR is doing to prevent this from reoccuring:
- Requires a review of existing geologic data for known faulted areas within the state and avoid the locating of new Class II disposal wells within these areas;
- Requires a complete suite of geophysical logs (including, at a minimum, gamma ray, compensated density-neutron, and resistivity logs) to be run on newly drilled Class II disposal wells;
- Requires operators to plug back with cement, prior to injection, any well drilled in Precambrian basement rock for testing purposes.
- Requires the submission, at time of permit application, of any information available concerning the existence of known geological faults within a specified distance of the proposed well location, and submission of a plan for monitoring any seismic activity that may occur;
- Requires a measurement or calculation of original downhole reservoir pressure prior to initial injection;
- Requires the installation of a continuous pressure monitoring system, with results being electronically available to ODNR for review; •
- Requires the installation of an automatic shut-off system set to operate if the fluid injection pressure exceeds a maximum pressure to be set by ODNR;
- Requires the installation of an electronic data recording system for purposes of tracking all fluids brought by a brine transporter for injection;
In January, the Department of Energy
set up a committee to examine the full range of environmental impacts of fracking. I testified to the members and, in addition to raising the issue about methane leakage and global warming, I brought up the earthquake issue.
The committee said that they were indeed aware of this issue and ultimately the seven-member panel
released a report of environmental guidelines for the natural gas industry, which included call on more research on “Understanding induced seismicity triggered by hydraulic fracturing and injection well disposal.”
I don’t consider this to be one of the 2 or 3 biggest concerns around fracking, but it is now clear that more study and national standards are needed.
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