Unsurpizingly the EPA adhered to
a pattern by issuing a report drastically reducing the amount of methane released to the atmosphere by fracking operations. The industry pressured the agency to reduce the amount previously reported by it. The scope of the revision is vast, claiming tighter regulations have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by twenty percent despite production increasing by nearly 40 percent since 1990. Federal climate scientists from National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration published recent studies documenting massive methane leaks from production in Colorado and other Western states. The new figures still show natural gas production to be the main source of methane emissions in the US at about 145 million metric tons in 2011. Methane from livestock was next at 137 million metric tons, and landfills accounted for 103 million metric tons. One environmental group leader called the new figures a "kind of earthquake."
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| credit: High Country News |
And that is the subject of other studies showing injection wells are causing earthquakes. The Seismological Society of America claim the increase in earthquakes throughout New Mexico are due to wastewater injection in the Raton Basin. Abandoned wells are used to dispose of the enormous amounts of waste liquid generated by the fracking process which pumps a slurry of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to open fissures in shale rock and release trapped natural gas. Between 2001 and 2011 the number of magnitude 3 or larger earthquakes rose 20 times more than during the period 1970 to 2001. Two faults crossing the Raton Basin have been located due to the earthquakes. USGS researchers think the ruptures along these faults are caused by frequent wastewater injection which lubricate and pressurize the faults. Waste injection was linked to a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in Trinidad, Colorado which destroyed historic buildings in town.
Prague, OK experienced the largest earthquake in Oklahoma's history, 5.7, on November 5, 2011. The quake buckled a highway
[photo], exploded windows and collapsed homes. The quake originated along the Wizetta fault, long thought to be inactive. But just 650 feet from the fault were old oil wells used by the industry to dispose of waste. Records showed the pressure inside the wells had increased 10 times from 2001 to 2006. The investigating researcher concluded that wastewater injections caused the quake and published the study results in the journal
Geology. Other studies have concluded there is a link between seismic activity and wastewater well injection. A
University of Texas study in 2012 found the majority of earthquakes recorded between 2009 and 2011 in North Texas occurred within a few kilometers of an active injection well. So its good news all round: if there is not enough escaping methane to kill you, but your house might collapse from the induced earthquake.
