CLEVELAND (AP) — A northeast Ohio well used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling almost certainly caused a series of 11 minor quakes in the Youngstown area since last spring, a seismologist investigating the quakes said Monday.
Research is continuing on the now-shuttered injection well at Youngstown and seismic activity, but it might take a year for the wastewater-related rumblings in the earth to dissipate, said John Armbruster of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y.
Brine wastewater dumped in wells comes from drilling operations, including the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale that has been a source of concern among environmental groups and some property owners. Injection wells have also been suspected in quakes in Ashtabula in far northeast Ohio, and in Arkansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma, Armbruster said.
Thousands of gallons of brine were injected daily into the Youngstown well that opened in 2010 until its owner, Northstar Disposal Services LLC, agreed Friday to stop injecting the waste into the earth as a precaution while authorities assessed any potential links to the quakes.
After the latest and largest quake Saturday at 4.0 magnitude, state officials announced their beliefs that injecting wastewater near a fault line had created enough pressure to cause seismic activity. They said four inactive wells within a five-mile radius of the Youngstown well would remain closed. But they also stressed that injection wells are different from drilling wells that employ fracking....Read more ...Here
The evidence seems to be piling up on the harmful and potential cataclysmic effects that fracking can have on the environment, is there any good reason now to oppose a moratorium on this process of energy recovery until the consequences of this process is fully known?
Learn what you can do by stop fracking by going to the website for Food & Water Watch, get educated and sign their petition to congress.
There is also a move afoot to ban fracking in NJ, by overwhelming bipartisan support our State Legislature passed a ban on fracking last year, only to have Gov. Christie veto the bill.
Food and Water Watch is urging Senate President Stephen Sweeney to hold a vote to override the Governor's veto and are asking residents to call his office and ask that he do so by calling 856-251-9081.
Residents can also sign-on to a letter asking Senator Sweeney to hold a vote to override
Governor Christie's veto of NJ's fracking ban by contacting Rachel Dawn, NJ's organizer for Food and Water Watch at RDawn@fwwlocal.org before tomorrow, January 5th
Governor Christie's veto of NJ's fracking ban by contacting Rachel Dawn, NJ's organizer for Food and Water Watch at RDawn@fwwlocal.org before tomorrow, January 5th
2 comments:
Some may wonder what the point is of banning fracking in NJ if there are few shale formations here to attract the gas industry. The point is to send a clear message to the industry, other states, and the federal government that that NJ residents demand full disclosure about these operations, strong federal regulations, and real oversight.
Right now the industry governs itself and is exempt from a host of federal laws that provide air and water protections. Regulation of gas industry operations is deferred to the states, which have neither the resources or the funds, or the regulations in place, to do the oversight. So there is little or no oversight of this industry, and we already know the serious problems that can result from that.
A ban on fracking in NJ will also spur the passage of strong regulations here governing the transport to and treatment/disposal of fracking wastewater in NJ. The state has already been approached about taking the flowback, and NJ wastewater treatment facilities may already be accepting it. Certainly, full disclosure by the gas industry of the pollutants involved should be a prerequisite, if we should accept fracking waste at all.
All....Check out "Gasland"-Documentary on HBO.
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