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Chesapeake agrees to stop causing earthquakes in Arkansas

By

Only do not interpret this move as an admission of guilt.

Drillers say they will halt disposal of fluids
By Arkansas Online Press Services
Friday, March 4, 2011

Chesapeake Operating Inc. and Clarita Operating LLC both said before a hearing Friday in Little Rock by the state Oil and Gas Commission that they will comply with an emergency request to stop injections of used natural-gas drilling fluid in the two wells in Faulkner County.

The drillers made the announcement in a pre-meeting notice. Still, the commission voted 8-0 to approve an emergency order ceasing operations at that the two injection wells. Commission staff suspects that the wells may be linked to an outbreak of hundreds of small earthquakes in the Faulkner County area.

Commission Director Lawrence Bengal said both companies agreed ahead of the hearing to to cease operations until the next commission meeting in late March.

In agreeing to do so, the companies did not admit culpability.

There was no testimony at the short hearing.

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    This is at least the second time that Chesapeake has had to stop their injection well process. Once at DFW Airport and now in Arkansas.

    I believe I see a pattern here.

  2. zoe says

    I bet everyone is wearing the shirt: "he did that" with the finger pointing to the other guy.

    I've got one word:

    INTEGRITY

    Come clean, and admit your wrong doing, and that you're complete idiots driven by greed.

    It will help your image in the long run. And admitting will get you through the denial stage, it will set you free, and help aid you in your recovery.

  3. Anonymous says

    Zzzzzzzzzz….ouch!……Zzzzzz….ouch……Zzzzzzzzzz….ouch! This happened at DFW and many other places. How many iterations of this do we have to experience before industry leaZzzzzzzzzzzz….ouch!

    +++ATH0

    NO CARRIER

Trackbacks

  1. […] Scientists say there is one way to minimize risks of even minor temblors                         With mounting evidence linking hundreds of small earthquakes from Oklahoma to Ohio to the energy industry's growing use of fracking technology, scientists say there is one way to minimize risks of even minor temblors. With mounting evidence linking hundreds of small earthquakes from Oklahoma to Ohio to the energy industry's growing use of fracking technology, scientists say there is one way to minimize risks of even minor temblors. Only, it costs about $10 million a pop. A thorough seismic survey to assess tracts of rock below where oil and gas drilling fluid is disposed of could help detect quake prone areas. But that would be far more costly than the traditional method of drilling a bore hole, which takes a limited sample of a rock formation but gives no hint of faults lines or plates. The more expensive method will be a hard sell as long as irrefutable proof of the link between fracking and earthquakes remains elusive. "If we knew what was in the earth we could perfectly mitigate the risk of earthquakes," said Austin Holland, seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey. "That is something that we don't have enough science to establish yet." A 4.0 New Year's Eve quake in Ohio prompted officials to shut down five wells used to dispose of fluid used in the hydraulic fracturing process. That comes less than a year after Arkansas declared a moratorium due to a surge in earthquakes as companies developed the Fayetteville Shale reserve. Experts say the quakes do not necessarily appear to be caused during the process of fracking, a controversial extraction technique that involves injecting chemical-laced water and sand into shale rock to release oil and gas. Instead, it's the need to dispose of millions of gallons of contaminated fluid extracted from each drilling site, either to be recycled or trucked to a separate location to be pumped deep underground. The pressure caused by water pushed far below the surface for a long period has been linked to an increase in seismic activity, as water enters fissures and lubricates fault lines which can cause earthquakes in places otherwise free of them. Read more . . .   Bookmark this page and check back regularly as these articles update on a frequent basis. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Scientists sa…n] […]