Fracking foes challenge Ohio earthquake assurances

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A citizens group said Wednesday it
isn’t taking the word of state regulators that new permitting guidelines
will protect public health after earthquakes in northeast Ohio were
linked to the gas drilling method of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Members
of Youngstown-based Frackfree Mahoning Valley said the science behind
the finding is a mystery, and new permit conditions the state is
imposing in response do nothing to prevent future quakes.
"They’re
not going to stop any earthquakes, they’re just going to pause activity
when one is felt," said Youngstown State University geologist Ray
Beiersdorfer, who’s affiliated with the group.
A state
investigation of five small tremors last month in the Youngstown area,
in the Appalachian foothills, found the injection of sand and water that
accompanies fracking in the Utica Shale may have increased pressure on a
small, unknown fault. The link has been classified as "probable."
The
state placed a moratorium on drilling activity at the site near the
epicenter of the quakes, while allowing five existing wells to continue
production.
Beiersdorfer said the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources should have produced a scientific report to accompany a
geologist’s conclusion linking Utica Shale fracking to earthquakes for
the first time. Fully understanding the finding could help protect
Ohioans from future fracking-related earthquakes, he said.
While
earlier studies had linked earthquakes in the same region to
deep-injection wells used for disposal of fracking wastewater, this
marked the first time tremors in the region have been tied directly to
fracking. The five seismic events in March couldn’t be easily felt by
people.
Mark Bruce, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources that oversees drilling, said all the data used by scientists
is being made available through public records requests. He said issuing
a report would have considerably delayed getting the information to the
public.
"After the last Youngstown events, we were routinely
criticized by many groups for taking too long to make public our
findings of our investigation," he said. "So this time, in the interest
of transparency and timeliness, we felt, ‘OK, let’s announce what we
know.’"
The new permit conditions — which carry less force than
rules or regulations — require all new drilling sites within 3 miles of a
known fault or seismic activity of 2.0 magnitude or higher to install
sensitive seismic-monitoring equipment to get a state drilling permit.
Monitoring results will be directly available to regulators so the state
isn’t reliant on drilling operators providing the data voluntarily.
If
seismic activity of 1.0 magnitude or greater is felt, drilling will be
paused for evaluation. If a link is found, the operation will be halted.
Shawn
Bennett, a spokesman for the industry group Energy In Depth, said the
threshold Ohio has set is lower than in other places where earthquakes
have been detected, such as British Columbia.
He said oil and gas drillers are motivated by the bottom line to follow rules, regulations and permit
conditions.
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