EarthquakesFracking did not cause East Coast quake, doubts linger

Published 13 January 2012

Scientists have ruled out the possibility that the controversial mining technique known as hydrofracking played any part in the quake that shook the East Coast last August

Scientists have ruled out the possibility that the controversial mining technique known as hydrofracking played any part in the quake that shook the East Coast last August.

Let’s be very clear: fracking did not cause the Virginia earthquake,” said Christopher Bailey, the chair the geology department at the College of William & Mary.

According to Bailey, drilling in the Marcellus wells, located roughly 100 miles away from the quake’s epicenter, could not have triggered the 5.8 magnitude earthquake.

It’s impossible,” concluded David Spears, a geologist with the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. “The kinds of pressure required to cause something like that can’t be transmitted over those distances from fracking.”

With hydrofracking, millions of gallons of highly pressurized water mixed with sand and chemicals are injected deep underground to break apart rocks that contain natural gas. In recent years this practice has gained steam, occurring in mines across the United States, particularly in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and upstate New York.

Spears explained that the power surge from fracking is minor compared to small quakes, and there are several fault lines that separate the Marcellus wells in West Virginia from the quake’s epicenter which would have prevented the spread of any underground tremors.

Fracking may not have caused the 5.9 quake that shook the East Coast, but it has been known to trigger tremors elsewhere. In particular dumping fracking fluid left over from the drilling process deep underground has been linked to quakes.

With the underground disposal wells, energy companies have found that it is too expensive or difficult to treat the water, so they pump it deep underground instead. Particularly in earthquake prone areas, the buildup in pressure far below the earth’s surface has been linked to seismic activity.  

They’re essentially lubricating ancient faults,” said John Filson, chief of earthquake studies at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Most recently, Ohio Governor John Kasich closed wastewater disposal wells, which accept fracking fluid from Pennsylvania’s mines, after it was suspected that they may have led to a 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Youngstown on 31 December. Meanwhile in Arkansas, government officials closed disposal wells in July after they were linked to hundreds of minor quakes near the wells.

In contrast Virginia has continued to allow mining companies to dump wastewater in disposal wells and Rick Cooper, the acting chief of the gas and oil division of the state’s Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, insists that there is no evidence that fracking activities have led to an increase in seismic activity.

Unconvinced, some residents are growing increasingly wary of the mining process, especially as Governor Bob McDonnell pushes to turn Virginia into the “energy capital of the East Coast.”

So far at least one company has leased land in Rockingham County to drill for gas in the Marcellus Shale reserve, but county officials, who worry that fracking could contaminate groundwater supplies, have yet to approve the project.

Their objections come in the wake of the Environmental Protection Agency’s statement that fracking may have caused water pollution in Wyoming.

With the mounting concerns over fracking, the mining firms will likely see increased opposition to new and existing mining operations.