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Activists Want Answers Related to Earthquakes
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Activists concerned over the this week’s spate of earthquakes in Poland Township want the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to deploy portable seismic monitors so it can determine whether a hydraulic fracturing operation in Poland Township triggered the tremors.
"They never had any earthquakes in 250 years of European settlement in this area," observes Ray Beiersdorfer, a professor of geology at Youngstown State University. "So, there's a correlation in terms of time."
The epicenters of five earthquakes and aftershocks that occurred March 10 and 11 were pinpointed near two well pads at the Carbon Limestone Landfill, where Hilcorp Energy Co. has drilled seven horizontal wells and was conducting a hydraulic fracturing operation at one of the wells.
ODNR spokesman Mark Bruce told The Business Journal on Tuesday that Hilcorp was conducting a hydraulic fracturing operation at the landfill site when the quakes occurred (READ STORY).
"The epicenters are right at the site where the fracking was being done," Beiersdorfer emphasized to reporters during a news conference Wednesday outside City Hall.
On Monday, ODNR issued an order halting all activity at the Carbon Limestone site and Hilcorp has willingly complied, the agency reported.
Beiersdorfer says the best way to determine the cause of the quakes is for the ODNR to bring the seismometers to the site to get a handle "on exactly where these earthquakes are occurring."
Hydraulic fracturing is a process in which companies extract gas from tightly packed shale rock by injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into the well and deep into the earth. The force helps prop open fissures in the shale and to unleash trapped oil and gas deposits.
Beiersdorfer and others suspect that the process helped trigger the latest round of quakes, indicating that the operation could have disturbed a fault in the area.
"Is there a connection between this shale gas fracking and the seismology?" he asked. "Right now, there seems to be one."
Beiersdorfer acknowledges that more detailed information is needed before any conclusions can be reached. "Supposedly, the company is going to release all their information to ODNR. I would make a request that they release it to the public, so that some unbiased third party could take a look at this."
Shawn Bennett, a spokesman for Energy In Depth Ohio, an industry advocacy group, says it's still premature to ascertain what caused the earthquakes.
"They way it's sounding, they want to automatically place the blame on hydraulic fracturing. The fact of the matter is, the ODNR is going to do a full and thorough investigation," he says. Once that investigation is concluded, the cause of the earthquakes could be known.
"Earthquakes do happen," Bennett says. "We can't automatically place the blame on the industry."
While there is hard evidence that the use of wastewater injection wells have induced earthquakes in the past -- in 2011 a series of quakes were tied to an injection well operation in Youngstown --there are also studies linking hydraulic fracturing with seismic activity, Beiersdorfer reports.
The most reliable study is related to hydraulic fracturing in the Horn River Basin between 2009 and 2011 in British Columbia, Canada, Beiersdorfer says. This study found a direct relationship between hydraulic fracturing and a series of small earthquakes that rattled that region.
In this case "fracking caused earthquakes, which then damaged the horizontal legs of these previously existing wells," Beiersdorfer reports.
It's the same issue in Poland Township, Beiersdorfer relates, since there are existing wells that could be affected by the quakes or any other future activity. "The company definitely needs to check the integrity of those wells," he says.
Another concern is that the earthquakes occurred under the Carbon Limestone Landfill, leaving open the possibility that the landfill's methane recovery system, its liner, and leachate recovery system could be damaged.
"We don't want that to be cracked because it could cause potential contamination of the ground water," he says.
Hydraulic fracturing in an area that is densely populated also carries with it many potential hazards to the population, Beiersdorfer relates. Even if the process doesn't trigger earthquakes, residents living within a half-mile of the well are exposed to hazardous levels of neurotoxins and carcinogenic gasses through the air, he says.
The geology professor cited a study in Colorado that showed pregnant women living close to a fractured well stood a 30% higher chance of bearing children with birth defects and congenital heart defects than those living 10 miles or more from a hydraulically fractured well.
"I would say 10 miles is at least a buffer zone," he says.
Awarding more local authority to govern the industry throughout the state could establish new regulations directing where these companies can and cannot drill, Beiersdorfer says.
In Ohio, the state, not municipalities or counties, has jurisdiction over the oil and gas industry, Beiersdorfer reports. "The Ohio budget from last summer exempted the radioactive drill cuttings from any regulation."
That's why it's important that voters in Youngstown support the Community Bill of Rights initiative that is slated for the ballot in the May primary, Beiersdorfer says. The initiative wants to ban injection wells and hydraulic fracturing within city limits.
"There's no place it [hydraulic fracturing] has been done safely," Beiersdorfer adds, noting recent air pollution reports from the Eagle Ford shale in Texas and the problems experienced in Dimock, Pa.
"I think it needs to be at minimum a moratorium, and definitely banned in residential communities," Beiersdorfer concludes.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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