Comments on: Ohio Christmas Quakes Likely Caused By Fracking Operation

By: JP

JP — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:00:16 +0000

@17 Geack …Actually the initial photo IS a drilling rig just like photo 9 in your slideshow…what you have in your slideshow is mainly photos from a fracking operation…when the rig is gone there is nothing but a small wellhead left over…http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_quWjdnVaSr2wqUIkiW6BYW-m_Sxj2-C5gVVP_eMJPXIric4F
agreed on your last point…I don’t understand how you can put a man on the moon yet not come up with a viable environmentally friendly solution to this problem…

By: Geack

Geack — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:33:08 +0000

@ 16. JP,
That’s a tower for removing gas. The actual drilling rigs look like this: http://www.mysanantonio.com/slideshows/business/slideshow/Hydraulic-fracturing-15238.php#photo-1004477.
The fact that we need the gas doesn’t mean we have to be stupid about how we get it.

By: jp

jp — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:53:27 +0000

Couple of things…First ,this development isn’t new…check your US Army’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal project in Colorado in the 1960s where waste was injected into a well 2 miles deep and MAY have triggered earthqaukes in the area…Second,there are certainly green fracking fluids being touted, a recent publicity stunt being the Halliburton CEO drinking his company’s fluid…Third,what is a “tower for removing gas” in the photo or do you mean a drilling rig…Fourth, Americans consume close to 700 BILLION cubic metres of natural gas annually so until you change the pattern of your lifestyles you need gas and the jobs that go with it…

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:13:34 +0000

@13) if you say the fraking caused the earthqukes, then fine, you know more than I do about it. I am not saying I’m reccomending it but it has been proposed before that if the fault lines could be lubricated than the result would be minor inconsequential earthquakes releasing the pressure and preventing one big one later. But our knowledge is just too damn limited to meddle with something like that know.

By: Geack

Geack — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:49:00 +0000

@ 11. Dave – Been listening closely to the info released and interviews with the researchers here in Ohio, and that “likely” should be interpreted as “almost certainly, but since we’re scientists we can’t claim absolute certainty”. Still not sure what to make of your intentional-quakes-make-us-safer theory.

@ 5. JD – Lightning occassionally burns down a barn. That doesn’t mean it’s OK to throw your cigarette butts into the hayloft. As the article points out if you read the whole thing, this is a known problem that has occurred in several states, and some states require a geological survey before waste wells are dug specifically to prevent it. Ohio doesn’t, yet.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:09:21 +0000

Comment #7 likely make by fracking icehole.

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:06:17 +0000

Causing small earthquakes now(if we even caused them) isn’t such a bad thing. It releases the pressure which would otherwise build up to a big destructive earthquake. Also I question the title of this post. Fracking LIKELY caused the earthquakes? It POSSIBLY caused them, we don’t know.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:04:27 +0000

Or, they could purify the wastewater and just reuse it. Dissolved solids and other contaminants would then have to be disposed of, but their volume is presumably much smaller.

The fracking chemicals themselves can be environmentally benign — doesn’t one formulation only use substances that are allowed as food ingredients?

By: Aidan

Aidan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:22:24 +0000

That, (@Redshift & JD) and fracking isn’t the most environmentally friendly thing in the world to begin with. This is just adding salt to it’s reputation’s wound..

By: William Watkins

William Watkins — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:54:43 +0000

I’m surprised D&L Energy hasn’t tried to put a positive spin on this: “We trigger tiny earthquakes to prevent the build-up to a big quake!”

By: are you all shills?

are you all shills? — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:26:33 +0000

Are all the other commenters here employed by fracking companies? Or their PR firms?

Crazy

By: Redshift

Redshift — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:25:54 +0000

@JD

If there is slippage-prone geology in the area, there would be BOTH past, normal quakes as well as slippages being induced by the water injections. Just because there have been normal quakes in the past in the area does not mean the industrial processes are not causing/encouraging more.

By: JD

JD — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:35:52 +0000

Looks like Ohio has had earthquakes throughout history, so I would not blame the earthquake on some new technology man has started lately. Use a little common sense. Very likely they will occur again.

By: Iowa

Iowa — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:40:10 +0000

If anything Ohio should give them some money for helping to discover a previously unknown fault line.

By: Veronique Greenwood

Veronique Greenwood — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:26:37 +0000

@John, yup, you’re right. Actually, we added a word to the headline to make that a little clearer.

@Cathy, indeed!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:23:46 +0000

@ John Moore – Correct. I believe they are discussing a new requirement for Ohio wells that they do a geological survey before storing wastewater. However, a lot of the waste is presently being shipped to Ohio from other states with that exact requirement, because a geological survey takes time and money that the drilling companies don’t want to spend (especially if it turns out that there is no safe place to drill at all.)

By: Larry Bricmont

Larry Bricmont — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:20:12 +0000

Injection disposal wells are different than Fracking. Get your facts staight. Disposal fluids are injected into a zone than shale fracking.

By: John Moore

John Moore — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:00:12 +0000

So its not the process of fracking that caused the earthquake but simply the location.