[EDITOR'S NOTE: This blog has been altered since its initial publication to correct the causes of the Ohio earthquakes. The injection of fracking wastewater deep underground, not the fracking process itself, is blamed for the Youngstown, Ohio earthquakes. The Ind regrets the error.]
First it was air pollution. Then it was groundwater contamination. Now, fracking — the controversial process used to extract natural gas from thousands of feet below the earth’s surface — has been linked to a series of rare earthquakes in Ohio and other states, the most recent of which occurred in Youngstown, Ohio Saturday and has halted drilling at certain Ohio fracking sites until further notice.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, taps into pockets of natural gas stored in shale formations deep underground (sometimes depths of more than 10,000 feet below the surface) by shooting chemicals and other liquid to fracture rock formations and subsequently release trapped natural gas.
The wastewater from fracking is then injected back into the earth, where in Ohio it apparently has migrated along fault lines and caused almost a dozen earthquakes in the Youngstown area.
“Fracking” in north Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale has carried natural gas production levels in Louisiana to their highest in more than 25 years, but several recent reports question whether oil and gas industry leaders are accurate in their assertions that the process is a safe one.
According to a New York Times report, Youngstown was hit with a 2.7-magnitude tremor on Christmas Eve, its 10th since March. The origin of the earthquake, the NYT reports, was 2,000 feet below an injection well used for fracking. The next day, an even stronger 4.0-magnitude quake struck the town again:
With the increased production of gas from shale in the United States, the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has come under fire for its potential to pollute the air and contaminate drinking water. But the events in Youngstown — and a string of mostly small tremors in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, British Columbia and other shale-gas-producing areas — suggest that the technique may lead, directly or indirectly, to a dangerous earthquake.
The state asked on Friday that injection at the well be halted after analysis of the 10th earthquake, a 2.7-magnitude temblor on Dec. 24, showed that it occurred less than 2,000 feet below the well. Because of a lack of data, depth estimates of earlier earthquakes had been far less precise.
The owner of the well, D&L Energy Group of Youngstown, stopped injection at 5 p.m. Friday.
When the stronger quake occurred less than 24 hours later, state officials decided to institute a moratorium on the injection of drilling waste within a five-mile radius of the well, “until we are able to take a closer look at the earthquake data that is available.”
The vice president of Ohio’s Oil and Gas Association, Thomas E. Stewart — or Don Brigg's doppelganger — rebuked any claims that tie the earthquakes to fracking, instead accusing oil and gas opponents of trying to “create hysteria.”
But a Dec. 14 article from Bloomberg points out that other states have stopped certain injection wells of this type due to the dramatic increase in earthquakes occurring near the sites:
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission did stop well disposal in August after a swarm of earthquakes. There were about 1,250 quakes recorded through July after two injection wells started operating last year, said Scott Ausbrooks, geohazards supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey in Little Rock.
Ausbrooks did a study with the University of Memphis and concluded there was “a plausible relationship between the injection wells and the earthquakes” after a previously unknown fault system was discovered, he said.
After the wells were shut down, there were only four earthquakes recorded in the area from July through October, down from an average of four a day, Ausbrooks said.
The Oklahoma Geological Survey concluded in an August report that it might have induced 43 temblors near Elmore City during 24 hours in January. Cuadrilla Resources Ltd., a U.K.-based explorer, also suspended fracking near Blackpool, England, in June based on a concern it may have triggered a quake.
Read more on the recent fracking developments here and here.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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