House Dems want spotlight on injection-linked quakes

By Mike Soraghan, E&E News
December 18, 2013

Congressional Democrats are calling for additional scrutiny of oil and gas drilling activities that can lead to earthquakes.

The top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources committees today called on the Republican chairmen of the panels to hold a hearing on deep injection of drilling waste and man-made earthquakes.

Their letter called for a joint hearing of the two committees, "in light of the increased seismic activity in hitherto seismically inactive locations, the need for additional data, and the potential regulatory gaps."

Representatives for the chairmen did not immediately return requests for comment.

Scientists have known for decades that underground injection of fluid can lubricate faults and unleash earthquakes. Now, some say the nation's shale drilling boom may be causing that to happen more often.

The practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has not been linked to damaging earthquakes. But fracking creates millions of gallons of salty, toxic wastewater. Most of it eventually gets injected underground into the country's roughly 40,000 deep disposal wells.

Researchers have linked such deep injection wells to earthquakes in Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Colorado. In some of those states, wells have been shut down. But in others, state officials disagreed with the researchers' findings.

The U.S. Geological Survey in October warned that Oklahoma City and central Oklahoma are in the midst of an earthquake "swarm" possibly linked to injection. That prompted the state's insurance commissioner to urge people in the state to buy earthquake insurance.

In Azle, Texas, local officials have been asking state oil and gas officials to investigate a series of small but persistent quakes that started in early November (EnergyWire, Dec. 18).

U.S. EPA's efforts on the topic have stalled, which was noted in the letter to the chairmen. The agency's examination of man-made earthquakes was undertaken by a technical working group of EPA and state officials in 2011, and a draft was sent to participants a year ago. But the report has never been released (EnergyWire, July 22).

EPA officials said they were not seeking to make new policies or regulations. Instead, they wanted to develop recommendations for state officials for dealing with injection wells linked to earthquakes.

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 Safe Drinking Water Act 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.