Yesterday afternoon at 2:38PM, West Virginia experienced a 2.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Braxton County. Back in April of 2010, there were a series of eight earthquakes averaging 2.7 in magnitude in Braxton County. There was talk then that maybe the Chesapeake Energy deep injection well located in Frametown might be involved. A prescient January 5th story by Pam Kasey for the State Journal noted:
A series of eight smaller tremors in 2010 near a Chesapeake Appalachia injection well in Braxton County subsided when the company agreed, in cooperation with DEP, to scale back its injections from the permitted 2,100 pounds per square inch. Chesapeake has since been able to gradually ramp its injections back up to the permitted level without incident.
Until yesterday.
Kasey’s story continued: West Virginia University geologist Tom Wilson had two suggestions for proactively minimizing the likelihood of earthquakes and of damage to important structures. The first suggestion was to not permit deep injection wells near fault lines. WVDEP’s Kathy Cosco says this is already taken into consideration. The second suggestion was to map critical infrastructure such as power lines and pipelines and factor avoidance of those structures into permitting injection wells. That project remains to be tackled by WVDEP.
I wonder about the integrity of horizontally fracked gas well casings standing up to the stresses of earthquakes. It seems to my lay mind that the earth shaking could create fracture lines in the cement or otherwise damage well casings critical to separating the aquifer from the contaminated frack water and gas in the fracture zone. (I didn’t take any courses in geologic engineering in vet school).
Earthquakes associated with injection wells is not fresh news; geologists have been aware of this for about 50 years according to the report filed with the EPA entitled Earthquake Hazard Associated with Deep Well Injection. The report reviews the history of the short-lived US Army Rocky Mountain Arsenal deep injection well. That well which was operating from 1962-1966 ceased to accept toxic waste water after it was determined that the activity spawned earthquakes in Colorado. Note: Cover page of report oddly appears historical; opening quote evidently is dated to 1951.
It seems that this phenomenon is becoming less unusual as shale gas extraction expands and more deep well injection of frack waste fluids is occurring. In the last few years there have been earthquakes in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and the United Kingdom attributed to deep well injection of frack waste fluids.
Also: Earthquakes may be tied to gas drilling activity, august 2010, WV Public Broadcasting
And for an interesting What? Me Worry opinion : Should We Freak Out About Fracking-Induced Earthquakes, Forbes, January 10, 2012
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Assuming without deciding that these earthquakes are caused by drilling waste injection wells, the earthquake magnitudes have been small, on the order of those occurring regularly for many years throughout the world, causing no damage.
But If it’s new here, it’s bad, right?