Dear Irving Texas: About those earthquakes

My blog didn’t recognize me this morning. That’s how infrequently I blog these days. I still have a lot to say just not so much time to get it said.

Today, being Christmas and seeing as how my family keeps things low stress, I have some time. But then I started stressing about the backlog of all the things I’ve been waiting to blog about. For example:

• The idiotic notion that there will be a wildfire of fracking bans across Texas as a result of the Denton fracking ban.
• Phil King of small government and local control until it has to do with oil and gas.
• @Frack_Master aka Chris Faulkner and how he is remaking himself as a fracking expert when he is really a internet scam artist. And the really irritating part of this, yet to be told story, is that the media treats him like he is an expert thereby giving him credibility. Done
• White priviledge. Totally unrelated to fracking.
• Earthquakes

Then today’s West Texas earthquake notice appeared in my inbox and because Irving residents have been emailing me lately with questions about frackquakes, the decision was made and my stress relieved. So, Irving, here is your Christmas present from me:

Irving residents say there is a discrepancy in how often their homes are shaking and the number of USGS earthquake notices.

This same discrepancy was experienced by the people living in Azle and Reno. They became distrustful and down-right paranoid about it until we learned that there are few sensors in Texas because Texas doesn’t have earthquakes was not earthquake prone until fracking started. And the sensors are far away from this area. With enough pressure, the USGS and a university installed sensors in that area and made the seismic data available online. The residents learned they were having several earthquakes everyday. That information is no longer available online. Real-time information is available, just not in Texas that I can find.

I don’t know the location of earthquake sensors in Texas and I don’t know the distance to the nearest sensor from Irving. I found a map that shows the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) Backbone System. As you can see, there are no sensors in this area. There is also a National Strong Motion Project map but none of those sensors are in Texas.

I think the first questions Irving residents need to ask of their mayor and city council are:

• Where is the nearest earthquake sensor located?
• How can we get sensors in our area with real-time information available online like the people in Azle and Reno had?

There are no active injection wells in Irving and why that does not matter.

I’m not sure where Irving’s boundaries lie on the Texas Railroad Commission GIS map but I can see that, other than whatever portion of the DFW Airport that resides in Irving, you have no injection wells. The two injection wells at the airport were shut in because they were causing earthquakes.

Irving only has the two gas wells that were drilled from the same pad site on or near University of Dallas campus. According to records obtained by Texas Public Information Act, Trinity East experienced a casing rupture that they were unable to fix on one of those wells and it was shut in. If you ask about that, you might get a cease and desist letter.  The other well has produced very little. Please note that these wells are very near the earthquake epicenter and near the Balcones fault. (Do not believe the rumor that these wells have been secretly converted to injection wells.)

None of that matters because of these induced seismicity/Man-made earthquake facts:

• We have known about man-made earthquakes since 1870 and since 1960 we have known that injection can induce earthquakes.
• Injection is injection no matter if it is fracking injection, waste injection or enhanced recovery injection.
• M3 – M5 quakes have been scientifically linked to wastewater injection wells in: Arkansas (M4.7), Colorado (M5.3), Ohio (M3.9), Oklahoma (M5.7), and Texas (M4.8)
• Fracking injection intentionally cracks rock/shale.
• Fracking injection has produced quakes of M2 and M3.
• Horn River Basin seismicity events, from 2009 to late 2011, were caused by fluid injection during hydraulic fracturing. All events occurred during or between hydraulic fracturing stage operations and produced earthquakes from M2.2 and M3.8
• In Oklahoma during 2011, 116 quakes from M0.06 to M2.9 occurred near a well being hydraulically fractured.
• Ohio quakes directly linked to fracking injection.
• Earthquakes in Snyder area may have been triggered by CO2 injection for enhanced recovery. Oil recovery may have triggered Texas tremors.
• In the Eagle Ford Shale, 62 probable quakes caused by complex geography and seismic activity associated with injection and extraction. Because extraction also causes earthquakes. (See Subsidence)
• Induced seismicity may be delayed for many years (20 years, [Keranen, K.M. et al. (2013)]), may not end for years after injection ends.
• Research has not established a maximum distance over which injection can induce earthquakes.
• The maximum possible magnitude of induced earthquakes is unknown. (31 miles [Keranen, K.M. et al. (2013)])

Industry has done such a splendid job of propaganda that the media and public believe the only injection that causes earthquakes is waste injection. If you understand the fracking process and think logically about it, you will see that we are redistributing massive amounts of liquids and solids and causing imbalances. See these diagrams drawn by a petroleum engineer.

Recap:

Injection and extraction (producing oil and gas) can cause earthquakes.

So you see, fracking impacts are widespread and include areas where there is little or no fracking.

Other factors:

There may be another factor at play in the Irving earthquakes as a good friend pointed out yesterday: The implosion of the Cowboy Stadium on a the Balcones Fault.

All this adds up to a bad combination for development in Irving right now. We may be left with that implosion eyesore for quite a while.

UPDATE: This news report that was not shown in the DFW area included video from a security camera that shows shaking during an earthquake.

Also see: Fracking and Texas Earthquakes and this post with ongoing updates.