The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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January 14, 2012

DEP officials: Possible link between fracking disposal, earthquakes

By Ry Rivard Charleston Daily Mail

Increasing evidence that earthquakes in Braxton County may be tied to the natural gas industry is prompting state Department of Environmental Protection officials to talk about what to do about the quakes.

A number of small earthquakes struck Braxton in 2010. Some locals suspected the quakes were tied to a Chesapeake Energy site near the community of Frametown. There, the company injects massive amounts of wastewater into the ground.

That water is a mix of naturally occurring water and chemically laced fluids that flow back to the surface during hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

Chesapeake is skeptical about a link.

Spokeswoman Meribeth Anderson said geological maps showed the epicenter of the quake was 6 miles from the injection site and 3 miles beneath the company’s disposal zone.

“Due to the distance from the disposal well and the amount of fluids disposed there, we don’t see a connection,” she said in an e-mail. “However, we are working with the DEP and due to our recycling program, we do not have any fluids to take to the well at this time.”

DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said regulators had worked with Chesapeake to reduce the amount of fluid the company was injecting after the 2010 quakes. The quakes stopped.

But lately Chesapeake has been increasing the amount of water it injects, Cosco said.

A 2.8 magnitude earthquake shook the area last week.

“It certainly makes it appear that there’s some type of connection,” she said. “Without seismic monitors in the area it’s difficult to scientifically make that connection, though.”

The company and DEP had discussed putting seismic monitors there in 2010, according to media reports at the time.

Cosco said officials’ discussions had focused on the Braxton case.

“The conversation at a broader scale hasn’t begun about what to do about injections over all — about whether there needs to be any changes in the underground injection control program,” she said.

Injections and quakes were not among the topics West Virginia lawmakers focused on last month when they passed new gas industry regulations.

Anderson said injection wells have been in use for decades and said if seismic activity was a concern it would have been evident and dealt with by now.

Nationally, there have been other cases of earthquakes occurring near injection sites, including quakes near Youngstown, Ohio, that stopped injections there earlier this month. Both Ohio and West Virginia are not known for regular seismic activity.

The injection sites in Youngstown and Frametown should not be confused with fracking itself, which is a method of producing gas from beneath the ground.

The Youngstown and Frametown injections involve disposing of wastewater at a different location after the fracking has occurred.

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