Fracking’s Earthquake Risks Push States to Collaborate
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. Mar 27, 2014 12:00 AM
Save Several U.S. states are banding together to combat the mounting risks of earthquakes tied to the disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.
Regulators from Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio met for the first time this month in Oklahoma City to exchange information on the man-made earthquakes and help states toughen their standards.
“It was a very productive meeting, number one, because it gave the states the opportunity to get together and talk collectively about the public interest and the science,” Gerry Baker, who attended as associate executive director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a group that represents energy-producing states, said in an interview. “It was a good start in coordinating efforts.”
U.S. oil and gas production surged to a two-decade high last year as technological advances such as fracturing, or fracking, let drillers coax liquids from rock formations. The process, in which a mix of water and chemicals is shot into shale to free trapped gas and oil, also generates large volumes of wastewater. As fracking expanded to more fields, reports tied quakes to underground disposal wells from Texas to Ohio.
Pumping fracking wastewater underground has been linked to a sixfold jump in quakes in the central U.S. from 2000 to 2011, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
more @Bloomberg.com
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