Dems will push drilling-linked quake issue at hearing
E&E News
By Michael Soraghan
March 26, 2014
Rep. Peter DeFazio figures that even the oil and gas industry's biggest advocates should want to know more about whether drillers' activities are triggering earthquakes.
But congressional Republicans have ignored the Oregon Democrat's request for hearings about such man-made earthquakes. So DeFazio, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, plans to bring it up tomorrow at an otherwise unrelated earthquake hearing.
"The 'know-nothings' continue to want to know nothing," DeFazio said. "We need to look at what is the potential for harm."
DeFazio asked for the hearing to include William Leith, the U.S. Geological Survey's senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards. Leith is closely involved with the agency's research into "induced seismicity."
Scientists have known for decades that underground injection of waste fluid -- from drilling or other industrial activities -- can lubricate faults and unleash earthquakes.
The nation's drilling boom has been powered by advances in the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses millions of gallons of water for each well and creates millions of gallons of salty, toxic wastewater. Most of that waste fluid eventually gets injected underground into the country's roughly 40,000 deep disposal wells. Fracking itself has not been linked to damaging earthquakes.
In an interview yesterday, DeFazio compared the earthquake danger to the current General Motors scandal, in which the company was alerted to ignition problems with some of its vehicles but didn't recall them.
"There could be a GM kind of event, where people knew there was a problem, but they didn't act," DeFazio said.
The office of Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) didn't respond to a request for comment on DeFazio's remarks.
The hearing of the committee's Energy and Minerals Subcommittee has been called to look at advances in earthquake science in the 50 years since "The Great Alaskan Quake." It will be at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in 1334 Longworth.
Swarm of quakes
Underground injection is regulated by U.S. EPA, but USGS is the most active federal agency on the topic of man-made earthquakes and their possible links to oil and gas drilling.
In a 2012 report to a scientific conference, USGS scientists highlighted a "remarkable" surge in earthquake activity in the middle of the country, particularly in Oklahoma. The report said the increase was most likely linked to disposal of waste fluid from oil and gas production. Last year, USGS declared that central Oklahoma is in the midst of an injection-related earthquake "swarm."
Amid that swarm, Oklahoma has pushed Nevada out of the No. 2 ranking for earthquakes among the Lower 48 states, according to an EnergyWire review of USGS data (EnergyWire, Feb. 20).
The Oklahoma Geological Survey disputes the idea that drilling activities are causing the big spike in earthquakes there. But oil and gas regulators in the state are starting to ask for more seismic data from drillers.
In addition to Oklahoma, researchers have linked such deep injection wells to earthquakes in Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Colorado. In some of those states, wells were shut down. But in others, state officials disagreed with the researchers' findings. Kansas has also formed a task force to look at potential links between injection and earthquakes near the state's border with Oklahoma (EnergyWire, Jan. 14).
USGS is wrestling with how to account for the seismic risk from drilling and disposal. The agency has generally excluded shaking related to industrial activity from its earthquake hazard maps, used to develop building codes and set insurance rates. But it has begun working on a separate map to evaluate the risk of man-made quakes (EnergyWire, Dec. 23, 2013).
Oil and gas production is regulated almost entirely by states. But a federal law, the Safe Drinking Water Act, governs underground injection of drilling wastewater. The act, enforced by EPA, doesn't make it illegal to cause an earthquake. Instead, EPA seeks to prevent earthquakes because they might harm the underground sources of drinking water the act does protect.
EPA's efforts on the man-made earthquakes have stalled. An agency working group started looking at man-made earthquakes in 2011, looking to draft recommendations for regulators. A draft report was sent to participants more than a year ago. But the report has never been released. DeFazio cited the stalled report last year in his request to Republicans for a hearing on man-made quakes (E&ENews PM, Dec. 18, 2013).
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