Earthquake swarms from Oklahoma fracking
5.0 earthquake damages town in Oklahoma
Reprinted in the Sacramento Bee 11-8-16
The Associated Press
JIM BECKEL The Oklahoman
Earthquake Damage in Cushing, Oklahoma
Dozens of buildings in Cushing, Okla., were damaged by a 5.0-magnitude earthquake Sunday. The town is home to one of the world’s most important oil hubs.
CUSHING, OKLA.
Dozens of buildings had “substantial damage” after a 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck an Oklahoma town that’s home to one of the world’s key oil hubs, but officials said Monday that no damage has been reported at the oil terminal.
Cushing City Manager Steve Spears said 40 to 50 buildings were damaged in Sunday’s earthquake, which was the third in Oklahoma this year with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater. No major injuries have been reported, and Spears said the damage included cracks to buildings and fallen bricks and facades.
Lots more Oklahoma earthquakes since fracking boomed.
Oklahoma has had thousands of earthquakes in recent years, with nearly all traced to the underground injection of wastewater left over from oil and gas production. Sunday’s quake was centered one mile west of Cushing and about 25 miles south of where a magnitude-4.3 quake forced a shutdown of several wells last week.
Some longtime Cushing residents said Monday they’ve become accustomed to the unsettled ground beneath their feet. Others shrugged it off as a cost of doing business living next to an oil hub.
Earthquake frequency and severity tied to localized fracking..
Fearing aftershocks, police cordoned off older parts of the city about 50 miles northeast of Oklahoma City to keep gawkers away late Sunday, and geologists confirmed that several small quakes have rumbled the area. Spears said an assisted living community had been evacuated after damage was reported. The Cushing Public School District canceled Monday classes.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation reported Sunday night that no highway or bridge damage was found within a 15-mile radius of the earthquake’s epicenter.
The quake struck at 7:44 p.m. Sunday and was felt as far away as Iowa, Illinois and Texas.
In recent years, Oklahoma regulators have asked oil and gas producers to either close wastewater injection wells or cut back on the volume of fluids injected.
CaliforniaGeo Responds—
The extractive industries that take resources out of the ground have a history of disturbance and/or pollution during the extraction and also in the refining and transport of the product. Often, there are no regulations with enough teeth to force the extractor to return the site to something resembling its original condition. Under such circumstances, it’s a case of business entitlement to pollute and the coping with social and environmental costs by others.
Earthquake swarms from Oklahoma fracking wastewater disposal are now a fact. This story illustrates a serious side-effect in a relatively new industry, hydraulic fracturing (or fracking). Massive amounts of fresh water must be imported for the process (2-to-6 million gallons per well) rendering a chemically-laced byproduct that’s pumped underground where it can pollute deep aquifers.
A cross-section of underground fracking.
Those closest to the extraction pay the price in “boomtown” instability, local surface pollution, and now definite proof of an increase in earthquakes where few were previously recorded.
Who pays for insured damage to personal property and increased rates? Who pays for damaged public infrastructure to buildings, pipelines, roads, or bridges? Certainly not the extractors.
All this disturbance and pollution for some oil and methane from deep under the earth, both increasing the greenhouse gas load driving climate change. It’s another massive social cost not paid for by the extractors. There are suitable alternatives to the use of oil and gas—we just have to reorder policy priorities to make a better choice. Geothermal heat pumps are a big part of that better future. The clean energy they tap is renewable and free, with no harm to anyone.
—Bill Martin