Phys.com, a site that reports science news, spun the finding that earthquakes caused by fracking could be mitigated as “Good News.” This would only be something to celebrate if fracking, or removing fossil fuels from the earth’s crust, was a good and desirable thing. It is not. We are killing the planet.
Those earthquakes that require mitigation are caused by a drilling process that the government permits, knowing that there will be collateral damage to people and the environment. We’d be better off not drilling in the first place.
Good fracking news
Hydraulic fracturing gave the petroleum industry access to ground resources that were previously inaccessible, along with side effects including air emissions, groundwater contamination, adverse health effects and the honestly astonishing phenomenon of human-induced earthquakes.
The magnitudes of many of these quakes are too small for humans to detect, but a number have been directly reported by affected populations, with damage including broken home foundations. Over the last two decades in Oklahoma, there has been a dramatic rise in seismic activity associated with fracking.
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey are reporting that regulatory efforts to backfill injection wells with cement and reduce injection volumes have lowered Oklahoma’s induced seismic activity rate. The finding suggests that reducing the depth of wastewater injection could also control seismic activity in other states.
“Each basin is different, but we’ve repeatedly seen the connection between injection depth and the likelihood of inducing earthquakes across the country,” says Robert Skoumal of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Source: Phys.org
