As quakes in West Texas increase, some oil-wastewater disposal has changed, but preparedness questions remain

The Permian Basin is a major oil production area. (Wikipedia map)

In 2017, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said "Texas is ranked first in the U.S. in the variety and frequency of natural disasters. Flooding, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes . . . . Sometimes, even utilization of the state’s natural reserves of oil, gas, and water can lead to subsidence and earthquakes." It's that last part, earthquakes, that has been increasing in number, and raising concerns: "In 2022, the state recorded more than 220 earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher, up from 26 recorded in 2017, when the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas began close monitoring," reports David Goodman of The New York Times.

In oil-rich West Texas, two earthquakes were felt in late 2022, one in Pecos and the second in December near Odessa and Midland, all in the Permian Basin. Goodman writes: "The [November] tremor registered as a 5.4-magnitude earthquake, among the largest ever recorded in the state. Then, a month later, another of similar magnitude struck not far away. . . . . The earthquakes, arriving in close succession, were the latest in what has been several years of surging seismic activity in Texas. . . . In 2022, the state recorded more than 220 earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher, up from 26 recorded in 2017, when the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas began close monitoring."

The cause of the earthquakes is known. Goodman reports: "Dr. Peter Hennings, the principal investigator for the Center for Integrated Seismicity Research at the University of Texas, said that earthquakes can be induced through human activity: the injection of a large amount of water in a short period of time adds fluid pressure under the earth, which essentially decreases the 'clamping' between rocks along natural faults and allows them to slip, creating an earthquake. . . . seismologists have established a relationship between smaller earthquakes and larger ones, Dr. Hennings said: The more small earthquakes you have, the greater the likelihood of a bigger one." 

Many Texas earthquakes "have been concentrated in the highly productive oil fields of the Permian Basin, particularly those in Reeves County, north and west of the city of Pecos," Goodman writes. "Where oil and gas production has increasingly meant hydraulic fracturing, a process of extraction that produces, as a byproduct, a huge amount of wastewater. Some of that wastewater is reused in fracking operations, but most of it is injected back under the ground."

An oil field near Pecos; Texas only recently began its statewide program of
monitoring for earthquakes. (Photo by Paul Ratje, The New York Times)

And what about the quakes? Rod Ponton, a former Pecos city attorney, told Goodman, “In West Texas, you love the smell of the oil and gas patch because it’s the smell of money. If you have to have the ground shaking every two or three months to make sure you have a good paycheck coming in every month, you’re not going to think twice about it.” But the area has made some changes. Goodman writes: "To address earthquakes outside of Odessa and Midland, state regulators suspended permits for deep disposal wells. . . . For local officials the earthquakes have presented new and unforeseen concerns about the structural integrity of buildings and buried pipes, as well as basic questions, such as, what are you supposed to do in an earthquake?"

Odessa Mayor Javier Joven told Goodman, "The big popular discussion out here is: Did you feel it? Did you feel it? And everyone goes on Facebook: I felt it. I felt it.” Joven also noted that the city has yet to alter building safety codes to prepare for earthquakes.

Almost two-thirds of local governments in U.S. don't have modern building codes; it could cost them after disasters

"Constructing homes and other structures to meet modern building codes has saved billions of dollars in losses from natural disasters like flooding and hurricanes over the past two decades, according to new estimates. But many local governments are behind getting these standards in place," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "Research that the Federal Emergency Management Agency released late last month looked at a database of about 18 million buildings constructed between 2000 and 2016 and found that cities and counties with modern building codes avoided around $27 billion of estimated losses from natural disasters over those years, compared to places that didn’t have updated codes.

The FEMA research found that 65% of counties, cities and towns don't have modern building codes, and that 30% of new construction is happening in places with no building codes or obsolete codes. How does your town or county stack up?

Study blames some West Texas earthquakes on fracking

Federal Reserve Bank base map, adapted by The Rural Blog

"A new study from the University of Texas at Austin blames hydraulic fracturing for causing some earthquakes in the Permian Basin of West Texas, dispelling the widely held view that oilfield wastewater disposals wells were solely responsible for the man-made tremors," Sergio Chapa reports for the Houston Chronicle. While the study doesn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship between earthquakes and fracking, it found a strong correlation.

It says fracking could have caused some earthquakes in Reeves, Pecos and Culberson counties. "Previous studies had blamed the earthquakes in oil-producing regions on disposal wells, into which wastewater from drilling, hydraulic fracturing and production activities is injected," Chapa reports.

Because of the assumption that disposal wells are responsible for the earthquakes, state authorities tightened regulations on them in late 2014. Steve Everley, a spokesperson for the industry-funded group Texans for Natural Gas, said the industry has supported those regulations, and noted that most of the earthquakes are too weak to cause damage or be felt by most people, Chapa reports.

EPA site replaces 'fracking' with 'unconventional oil and gas'

Screenshots by Environmental Data and Governance Initiative

The Environmental Protection Agency has largely replaced the terms "hydraulic fracturing" and "fracking" on its website, according to a report released last week by the Environmental and Data Governance Initiative. The replacement phrase, "unconventional oil and gas," is a common term in the industry but not in common parlance.

There are two ways to interpret the EPA’s change, Brian Kahn writes for the environmentalist publication Earther: "The benign take is that the term is inclusive of a variety of ways fossil fuels are extracted. Fracking is just one step in one process to get at hard-to-access oil and gas. Unconventional oil and gas include all sorts of things like tar sands, for example, though the new EPA pages don’t get into those or even defining what the term means. There’s another, less charitable read on the change, though. Anti-fracking sentiment has been on the rise for years, and majorities of Americans of all political stripes favor tighter regulation, according to Gallup polling done earlier this year. The Trump administration does not agree."

EPA made many other changes in the overhaul, Kahn reports. It removed the section that said the agency promoted transparency and conducted outreach to stakeholders; added a section highlighting partnerships with oil and natural-gas sectors and industry associations, and removed "a lot of details of oil and gas extraction on air quality (of which there are many)," he writes. "It also removed a sentence describing how 'prudent steps to reduce these impacts [from rapidly increasing gas extraction] are essential now even as further research to understanding potential risks continues.'"

Florence floods put stress on North Carolina dams, call attention to the poor shape of nation's dams

A map of U.S. dams shows that many are rated "high hazard.
(Federal Emergency Management Agency map)

Devastating flooding in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence has raised concerns about whether dams across the state, some of them already in poor condition, will be able to hold up under the strain," reports Sarah Rankin of The Associated Press. "State and local officials have been monitoring dam safety and say there have been at least two breaches so far that caused no major issues. But there have been several other locations of concern and false alarms about dam failures that have caused panic."

Of North Carolina's 5,700 dams, 1,445 have been rated high-hazard -- that is, their failure would likely kill at least one person. According to the Army Corps of Engineers' National Inventory of Dams, recent inspections showed that 185 of those high-hazard dams were in poor or unsatisfactory condition; many were in flooded areas, Rankin reports. Before Florence hit, state Dam Safety Program workers tried to reduce the likelihood of dam failure by contacting dam owners and operators to inform them of the threat and ask them to lower water levels temporarily to make room for heavy rains, she reports. 

But though North Carolina appears to have pulled through Florence without major dam failure, the hurricane draws attention to the poor condition of dams nationwide. "The American Society of Civil Engineers gave a 'D' grade to the state of the country’s dams in a 2017 report, noting the average age of the dams is 56 years old," Rankin reports. "The ASCE estimated there are more than 2,000 'deficient high-hazard' dams lacking investment in repairs and upgrades." Along with earthquakes and age, flooding is a leading cause of dam failure, she reports. And as climate change makes extreme weather more common, the risk of dam failure grows.

Researchers find evidence that Texas quakes are caused by injection of fluids from fracked wells

Science Advances maps of quakes of magnitude 3 or higher; click on image to enlarge it.

Disposal of wastewater from oil and gas wells opened with horizontal hydraulic fracturing may be responsible for an increasing number of earthquakes in Texas, according a study published Nov. 24 in Science Advances.

Previous studies have suggested a correlation between injection wells and earthquakes in Oklahoma, which adopted guidelines last year to force drilling companies to pause and evaluate the effects of their operations when an earthquake of sufficient strength occurs. However, it's almost impossible to directly prove the cause of a particular quake by looking at its characteristics or plotting quakes on a map. "A cluster of earthquakes around a drilling project can, at best, suggest a relationship," Ben Guarino reports for The Washington Post.

So researchers from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the U.S. Geological Survey took a different tack: they performed seismic reflection imaging, a sort of ultrasound, on Texas bedrock to see if active faults could be causing a recent spate of earthquakes. They compared Texas with the Mississippi Embayment, a region with similar seismic activity and geologic placement but far less fracking. They found that the Mississippi Embayment's earthquakes were caused by continuous fault activity for the past 65 million years, but faults in the area of Texas they studied hadn't been active for 300 million years, so there is no known geologic process that could explain them.

Cliff Frohlich, a geophysicist at the University of Texas in Austin who was not involved in the study, told Guarino that the study provides a powerful argument that "These earthquakes are something new and different."

Spending bill has rural resonance: keeps post offices open, funds parks, Amtrak, other programs

Post office in Bon Air, Ala.

The $1 trillion spending package drafted for passage by Congress this week includes funding for several rural programs with rural resonance, but omits funding for several others. The 1,665-page bill also ensures that several programs important to rural areas remain intact.

"The bill prohibits the nation’s mail delivery system from consolidating or closing 'small rural and other small post offices'," Kelsey Snell and Ed O'Keefe report for The Washington Post. The U.S. Postal Service has struggled financially for several years, reporting a loss of $5.1 billion in 2015. That has led to the closure of some post offices and put others in danger of being shuttered.

The bill also denies funding for President Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. "Trump didn’t get the wall money he wanted but Republicans did get $1.5 billion to spend on repairs to existing border fencing and new technology, such as drones and sensors to help agents keep an eye on parts of the border not protected by barriers," Snell and O'Keefe report.

When it comes to "funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main agency in charge of deportations and immigration monitoring," the spending bill "includes money for 100 new officers and approximately 5,000 more beds," far less than Republicans wanted, the Post reports. "Funding will bring the number of beds available for immigration detainees to about 34,560, far less than the roughly 43,000 beds the Trump administration requested."

"But a $1.5 billion spending increase for the Justice Department will help pay for 'short-term detention space' that Republicans say will help house undocumented immigrants and other federal offenders," the Post reports. "A $20 million increase for the Executive Office of Immigration Review will help pay for 10 more federal immigration judges," and the bill requires monthly reports on the performance of immigration judges.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will get $11 million more than last year "partly to whittle down the endangered-species delisting backlog," reports the Post. Money will "also help fight invasive species and illegal wildlife trafficking."

"The National Park Service would be fully funded, including a modest bump of $81 million for park maintenance and projects related to the agency’s centennial celebration," the Post reports. "The money is also designed to put a dent in an $11 billion maintenance backlog that includes much needed repairs."

Also:

• The U.S. Geological Survey received $23 million more in funding, with nearly half for an early earthquake warning system.
• The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities would see a funding increase of $2 million, bringing each budget to $150 million for fiscal 2017.
• The Food and Drug Administration would be allowed to continue reviewing electronic cigarettes, which are increasing in popularity.
• Western states will receive $407 million in emergency funding to help fight wildfires this year
• Amtrak gets $1.5 billion, a $105 million increase from the last budget year.

The bill does not include "assistance sought by cotton and dairy producers," Philip Brasher reports for Agri-Pulse. Democrats "were seeking to provide milk producers about $840 million over 10 years by reducng the cotton industry's proposal, which was estimated to trigger more than $4 billion in Price Loss Coverage payments."

Instead, the bill directs the Agriculture Department "to prepare a report within 60 days on the 'administrative options for financial relief and recommended legislative actions to provide the cotton industry with a viable safety net," Brasher reports. "USDA also is told to consider providing immediate, direct assistance to dairy producers using the department's existing Commodity Credit Corp. authority. Separately, USDA is urged to allow milk to be covered as a crop under revenue insurance policies."

Risk of man-made earthquakes down in Texas, Okla. with decrease of oil field wastewater disposal

USGS says the risk of damaging quakes triggered
by oil field wastewater disposal is lower
this year but still significant.

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey say a decline in oil field wastewater disposal has led to a decrease in risk from man-made earthquakes in Oklahoma and Texas, Mike Soraghan reports for Energywire. But they warn "that there's still a significant chance for oil field activity to trigger a damaging quake in the next year."

USGS's second annual hazard map forecasting the danger of damaging quakes caused by man-made activity was published this week in the journal Seismological Research Letters, Soraghan writes. "The forecast showed a slight decrease in Oklahoma, although some portions are still considered to have a 10 to 12 percent risk of a damaging quake. But the Dallas area was removed from the map. That meant the number of people considered to be at elevated risk from man-made quakes dropped from 7 million to about 3.5 million."

"The likelihood of damaging ground shaking in central Oklahoma remains similar to that of natural earthquakes in high-hazard areas of California, according to the USGS assessment," Soraghan writes. "And USGS officials noted the level of hazard remains higher than what current building codes take into account. The forecast maps released yesterday indicate that the Raton Basin area along the Colorado-New Mexico border also remains at elevated risk. An area in West Texas, where companies have increased production from the Permian Basin, was added as being at a slightly elevated risk of damage from quakes."

Earthquakes down 31% in Oklahoma in 2016, but total strength of seismic energy release on the rise

Oklahoma earthquakes through Sept. 24, 2016 (USGS graphic)

The Oklahoma Geological Survey recorded 623 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or higher in 2016, Mike Soraghan reports for Energywire. While that's down 31 percent from the 2015 record total of 903, "some of the quakes were much stronger than in 2015, so 2016 still set a state record for seismic energy release, a measure of strength." In comparison, two of the nation's leading states for earthquakes, California and Nevada, combined for less than 300 in 2016.

"Oklahoma's earthquake swarms have been linked by scientists and state officials to deep injection of drilling wastewater by oil and gas companies," Soraghan writes. "The reduction in quakes has followed a reduction in wastewater injection because of government restrictions and an oil price slump." Prior to the oil and gas boom that began in 2009, Oklahoma averaged only two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher per year.

"In the past few years, oil and gas regulators at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission have directed about 700 disposal wells in the state to close or scale back operations," Soraghan writes. "Because of that, the amount of wastewater being injected deep underground every day has dropped by about 800,000 barrels, or 34 million gallons. But companies struggling with the oil price slump cut injection by at least another 500,000 barrels a day beyond the state's directives. If prices rise, they could increase that much without violating the directives."

Oklahoma issues new guidelines to combat rise in earthquakes linked to hydraulic fracturing

Oklahoma regulators on Tuesday released "guidelines to deal with the risks of earthquakes induced from hydraulic fracturing operations in oil and gas development, an expansion of their previous responses to earthquakes linked to wastewater disposal wells" for fracking fluids, Paul Monies reports for The Oklahoman. Oklahoma had more earthquakes in 2015—941 of magnitude 3.0 or higher—than the combined total of every state except Alaska. Prior to the oil and gas boom that began in 2009, the state averaged only two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher per year. (Natural Gas Intelligence graphic)

The guidelines "call for companies to shut down for at least six hours if a quake of magnitude 3 or greater is centered within 1.25 miles of a fracking operation," Mike Soraghan reports for Energywire. "During that time company officials and regulators would confer about how to change the operation. If there were to be a quake of magnitude 3.5, the fracking operation would shut down until company officials and regulators confer about whether the operation can continue."

"For quakes between magnitudes 2.5 and 3, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is to contact nearby operators who are expected to implement their internal plans for earthquake mitigation," Soraghan writes. While the guidelines are voluntary, "OCC has the power to shut down an operation to address earthquake problems."

Many in the oil and gas industry praised the guidelines, Soraghan writes. Until recently many in the oil and gas industry, along with Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, refused to acknowledge a link between fracking and earthquakes. That changed last year when the Oklahoma Geological Survey, which originally denied any link between seismic activities and fracking operations, said "that most of the quakes are 'very likely' triggered by oil and gas activities." In March OGS for the first time released maps of earthquakes attributable to human activity.

Oklahoma regulations could drastically reduce earthquakes linked to fracking, says Stanford study

State regulations in Oklahoma could drastically reduce the number of magnitude-3 or higher earthquakes linked to injection wells used to dispose of drilling waste from horizontal hydraulic fracturing, says a Stanford University study published in Science Advances. Researchers say the regulations—which call for a 40 percent reduction in the volume of saltwater being injected in the seismically active areas—should significantly decrease the number of man-made earthquakes "by the end of 2016 and approach historic levels within a few years."

Oklahoma had more earthquakes in 2015—903 of magnitude 3.0 or higher—than the combined total of every state except Alaska. Prior to the oil and gas boom that began in 2009, Oklahoma averaged two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher per year. The U.S. Geological Survey in March for the first time released maps of earthquakes attributable to human activity. USGS has attributed Oklahoma's increased seismic activity to injection wells. (Stanford map: Oklahoma earthquakes)

The study does have some problems, Mike Soraghan reports for Energywire. The model and prediction "assumes wastewater disposal doesn't increase in earthquake-prone areas. The current decline has been caused both by regulatory restrictions and reduced production because of low oil prices. The model predicts about 250 quakes of magnitude 3 or greater next year and about a 40 percent chance of a quake of magnitude 5 or greater."

Justin Rubinstein, a research geophysicist heavily involved in the Geological Survey's research into the man-made quakes, "said the Stanford model makes sense but seems optimistic," Soraghan writes. "Rubinstein noted some of the uncertainty in the study. The model is adapted from one used for much simpler scenarios—geothermal or oil and gas operations associated with a single well. And within their broad prediction," the study's authors "allow that isolated areas could continue having unusual quake levels beyond the predicted five to 10 years."

Oklahoma to shut or limit some fracking-disposal wells after magnitude-5 quake

The State of Oklahoma "plans to shut some disposal wells and reduce the volume of others as its initial response to Sunday’s earthquake near the oil hub of Cushing," Sheela Tobben and Jessica Summers report for Bloomberg News.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission said its order would cover a 700-square-mile area, but didn't say how many wells would be affected. The agency has issued broader orders in the last two years.

"The region, previously not known for intense seismic activity, began having a significant number of earthquakes in 2009, the same year area oil companies began using fracking to shatter deep rock layers to extract oil and gas," Bloomberg reports. "Fracked wells produce large quantities of wastewater, which drilling companies inject into ultra-deep disposal wells."

The Oklahoman reports that the 5.0-magnitude quake damaged about 40 buildings in Cushing, a town of about 7,800 that is the main delivery point for West Texas intermediate crude, the market barometer for U.S. oil. 

Earthquake between 4.3 to 4.5 magnitude in Oklahoma led to injection wells being shut down

An earthquake estimated between magnitude 4.3 to 4.5 that hit Oklahoma shortly after midnight on Wednesday has led oil and gas officials to shut down four injection wells used to dispose of drilling waste from horizontal hydraulic fracturing, the leading method for producing oil and gas in the U.S., Mike Soraghan reports for Energywire. Another 10 wells have had disposal volumes cut by 25 percent. The earthquake occurred near Pawnee (Best Places map) which in September had the largest quake ever recorded in the state.

"The quake occurred close to Osage County, home of the Osage Nation, where Environmental Protection Agency has jurisdiction over disposal wells," Soraghan writes. "EPA directed the operators of 26 wells to limit volume to the average injected in the last 30 days. Another six must reduce volumes to 75 percent of their 30-day average."

Oklahoma had more earthquakes in 2015—903 of magnitude 3.0 or higher—than the combined total of every state except Alaska. Prior to the oil and gas boom of 2009, Oklahoma averaged two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher per year. The United States Geological Survey in March for the first time released maps of potential man-made earthquakes. USGS has attributed Oklahoma's increased seismic activity to injection wells. (Read more)

Record quake hits Oklahoma, where increased temblors are linked to disposal of fracking waste

The quake shook part of the sandstone facade off an old bank
building in Pawnee, Okla. (Photo from Tulsa Public Radio)

UPDATED, Sept. 9: The earthquake has been upgraded to 5.8 magnitude, making it the strongest ever in the state and the "strongest in the contiguous 48 states in two years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey," Corey Jones reports for Tulsa World.

Oklahoma once had one or two noticeable earthquakes (3.0 magnitude or greater) a year. Now it has hundreds, and Saturday morning it had a quake that tied for the strongest in the state's history, a 5.6-magnitude temblor that damaged a few buildings in Pawnee and was felt in at least eight states.

"The quake was so strong in Joplin, people there were worried it was the New Madrid Fault in far eastern Missouri, the site of the United States' strongest earthquake ever, in 1812," John Durkee of Public Radio Tulsa reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey has attributed Oklahoma's increased seismic activity to injection wells used to dispose of drilling waste from horizontal hydraulic fracturing, the leading method for producing oil andgas in the U.S. "The quake prompted state oil-and-gas industry regulators to order the shutdown of disposal wells in a more than 700-square-mile area near the quake’s epicenter," Paighten Harkins reported for the Tulsa World.

USGS placed the epicenter of the quake eight to nine mikes northwest of Pawnee and about four miles underground. "Preliminary information from the Oklahoma Geological Survey indicates the earthquake was a 'strike-slip event' off the southern edge of the Labette Fault, a major fault that runs through Pawnee and into Osage County," Harkins reported.

EPA says 'significant possibility' disposal wells are linked to rise in earthquakes in North Texas

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a report that that agency officials "believe 'there is a significant possibility' that recent earthquakes in North Texas are linked to oil and gas activity," Jim Malewitz reports for The Texas Tribune. Texas, home to thousands of wastewater disposal wells, "is the third-most at-risk state for man-made earthquakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey—behind only Oklahoma and Kansas." It's believed to be the first time EPA has tied Texas earthquakes to industry activity.

The report states: “In light of findings from several researchers, its own analysis of some cases and the fact that earthquakes diminished in some areas following shut-in or reduced injection volume of targeted wells. EPA believes there is a significant possibility that North Texas earthquake activity is associated with disposal wells." EPA recommended "close monitoring of injection activity'  going forward, coupled with 'appropriate data analysis methods, in a coordinated effort to detect possible correspondence with seismic activity." (USGS map: Seismic activity in Texas from 1973 to Feb. 26, 2016)

States are learning how to prevent earthquakes linked to oil and gas drillers' disposal wells

In Kansas and Oklahoma, where an increase in earthquakes has been linked to oil and gas companies' wastewater injection wells, the states have found a solution to help reduce man-made seismic activity, Jen Fifield reports for Stateline. Since placing restrictions in March on "oil and natural gas operations in certain hotspots, Oklahoma is feeling an average of about two earthquakes a day, down from about six last summer, and Kansas is feeling about a quarter of the tremors it once did."

Oklahoma had more earthquakes in 2015—more than 900 of magnitude 3.0 or higher—than the combined total of every state except Alaska. Before the oil and gas boom that began in 2009, Oklahoma averaged two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher per year. Oklahoma, which had 701 earthquakes of 2.8 magnitude or higher through the first six months of 2015, had 619 during that time period this year. (Stateline graphic: Oklahoma earthquakes)

"Using a growing body of research, along with trial and error, scientists and state regulators are gradually getting closer to pinpointing the cause of the startling increase in earthquakes in the Central and Eastern U.S., and preventing them," Fifield writes. "The general cause, scientists have found, is not drilling, but what happens after, when operators dispose of wastewater that comes up naturally during the oil and gas extraction process. The operators inject the wastewater into disposal wells that go thousands of feet underground, which can increase fluid pressures and sometimes cause faults underneath or nearby to move."

"To gather more data, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas are expanding their seismic monitoring systems this year, placing permanent stations across the states and moving temporary stations to new hotspots," Fifield writes. "And Oklahoma and Texas hired more staff or are contracting with scientists to study the geology of areas where earthquakes are occurring, the details of the quakes that happen, and the oil and gas activity that may be associated with them."

"About 7 million people across the Central and Eastern U.S. are now at risk of man-made shaking powerful enough to crack walls and rattle items off shelves, according to a one-year United States Geological Survey forecast released in March," Fifield writes. "The report outlined the risk from man-made earthquakes for the first time, listing the states with the highest risk in order as Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas." (Read more)

Texas oil and gas industry 'almost certainly' caused 59% of earthquakes since 1975, says study

Nearly two-thirds of Texas earthquakes over the past 40 years can be linked to the oil and gas industry, says a study by the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University, published today in the journal Seismological Research Letters. The study "concludes that activities associated with petroleum production 'almost certainly' or 'probably' set off 59 percent of earthquakes across the state between 1975 and 2015," Anna Kuchment reports for The Dallas Morning News. "Another 28 percent were 'possibly' triggered by oil and gas activities. Scientists deemed only 13 percent of the quakes to be natural." (Morning News graphic)

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, was quick to dismiss the study as arbitrary, Kuchment writes. "In November 2014 the commission tightened its rules for disposal wells. Since then, it has received 51 disposal-well applications. Of these, 22 permits were issued with special conditions, such as requirements to reduce daily maximum injection volumes and pressure and to record volumes and pressures daily as opposed to monthly. Nine permits were issued without special conditions. The rest were either withdrawn, returned to the applicant for more information, protested and sent to a hearing, or are still pending."

The study links man-made earthquakes back to the early days of the oil and gas industry, Kuchment writes. "The first man-made quake struck in 1925 in the Goose Creek oil field along the Gulf Coast east of Houston. Humble Oil, a precursor of Exxon, had extracted so much oil that the ground sank and caused houses to shake and dishes to crash to the floor. Over the years, different petroleum production methods have triggered quakes, including oil and gas extraction and enhanced recovery, in which operators pump water or carbon dioxide into reservoirs to boost the flow of oil. Each method can, in rare cases, raise or lower pressure on faults and cause them to rupture."

Environmental groups sue EPA, calling for updated, stricter rules for wastewater from fracking

Environmental advocacy groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday, "saying the government has failed to adequately regulate the disposal of waste generated by oil and gas drilling," Brady Dennis reports for The Washington Post. The groups, which want stricter rules on the disposal of wastewater, "argue that EPA has neglected to revise its existing rules for nearly three decades, despite acknowledging in the late 1980s that stricter requirements were needed for the handling of oil and gas drilling waste." The groups also cited an increasing number of studies linking the oil and gas industry to earthquakes from fracking-disposal wells as another reason for stricter rules.

"In addition, the groups want EPA to ban the practice of dumping fracking wastewater on fields and roads, where it potentially could pollute drinking water sources," Dennis writes. "They also want the agency to require that ponds and landfills where drilling and fracking waste are dumped built to certain specifications and adequately lined to prevent leaks. The lawsuit asks the court to set strict deadlines for EPA to adopt updated rules."

A.J. Ferate, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, told the Post last year, “It’s hard to deny that in certain geographic locations with certain geologic circumstances, we’ve had some problems with some wastewater wells. But to make a blanket assertion that wastewater wells are always the cause, I don’t know that I can agree with that.” (Read more)

Pa. officials trying to determine if small earthquakes are linked to hydraulic fracturing

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are conducting a study to see if a series of small earthquakes recorded Monday in Western Pennsylvania are linked to a nearby natural gas hydraulic fracturing operation, Laura Legere reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"The U.S. Geological Survey says five minor earthquakes originated in an area just west of New Castle in a 22-hour period on Monday, all small tremors between magnitude 1.7 and 1.9, which is below what humans can feel," Legere writes. "The timing and proximity of the Lawrence County earthquakes—originally the geological survey had identified just two—suggest a link to a nearby natural-gas fracking operation, but seismologists were being cautious Thursday, saying it is too early to tell definitively if fracking triggered the quakes." (Post graphic)

"A DEP spokeswoman said Wednesday that the wells that were being fracked have horizontal wellbores headed northwest from the pad, which is the general direction of the closest earthquake," Legere writes. Michael Brudzinski, a geology professor at Miami University in Ohio, told Legere, "I think anyone looking at the situation would say there are earthquakes very close to where the well is at the time the well is being stimulated with hydraulic fracturing. That’s suggestive that there is a link. But I don’t think any of us are ready to say anything more conclusive than that.” Injection wells for disposal of fracking fluids have caused quakes in Oklahoma, officials there say.

USGS for the first time releases maps of potential man-made earthquakes

About seven million people in the U.S. live and work in areas "with potential for damaging shaking from induced seismicity," says a report released Monday by the United States Geological Survey that for the first time includes maps identifying "potential ground-shaking hazards from both human-induced and natural earthquakes," Jessica Fitzpatrick and Mark Petersen report for USGS. "In the past, USGS maps only identified natural earthquake hazards. This is also the first one-year outlook for the nation’s earthquake hazards and is a supplement to existing USGS assessments that provide a 50-year forecast."

Petersen, Chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, said, “By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the U.S. This research also shows that much more of the nation faces a significant chance of having damaging earthquakes over the next year, whether natural or human-induced.” (USGS map)

"The list of places at highest risk of man-made earthquakes includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio and Alabama," Joel Achenbach reports for The Washington Post. "Most of these earthquakes are relatively small, in the range of magnitude 3, but some have been more powerful, including a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2011 in Oklahoma that was linked to wastewater injection."

Scientists said "they do not know if there is an upper limit on the magnitude of induced earthquakes; this is an area of active research," Achenbach writes. "Oklahoma has had prehistoric earthquakes as powerful as magnitude 7. It's not immediately clear whether this new research will change industry practices or even whether it will surprise anyone in the areas of newly estimated risk. In Oklahoma, for example, the natural rate of earthquakes is only one or two a year, but there have been hundreds since fracking and horizontal drilling, with the associated wastewater injection, became commonplace in the last decade."