Barnett Shale Earthquakes Caused by Drilling Expert Says

So far earthquakes in the Barnett Shale have been minor and only a nuisance. What happens if the earthquakes increase in magnitude as they did in Colorado where drilling caused a magnitude 5 earthquake that damaged property. Who pays for the damage? Would that be yet another cost borne by unlucky residents who live in areas where natural gas drilling is escalating at an enormous pace?

Other questions that need answers:

• What happens to those supposedly extra special cement casing jobs at the wells and injection wells as we have more earthquakes?
• What about all the pipelines in our neighborhoods?Check out this pipeline map! (scroll way down, it’s worth it)
• What about the Atmos gas couplings?

An earthquake expert, Cliff Frohlich, associate director and senior research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin, says the data points to drilling as the cause of the recent quakes. Frohlich cowrote a book, Texas Earthquakes , and he believes drilling has caused Texas earthquakes.

Cleburne quakes probably related to gas drilling, expert says

Most people would probably conclude if they looked at the data that they would be related,” said Cliff Frohlich, associate director and senior research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Frohlich said he made his connection based on “the characteristics of the earthquakes and the fact that there’s been an enormous amount of drilling and injection of fluids in that area for recovery of gas.”

Here is a link to research on earthquakes in Texas

Non-expert, Ed Ireland, said there is no concrete link between drilling and earthquakes.

Recently an expert, Al Armandariz, Ph.D., Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Southern Methodist University, released a study on drilling emission in the Barnett Shale. Ireland, who is an economist, NOT a scientist, wrote an op-ed to dispute the findings of the study. Armandariz, an expert, had to defend himself against the industry.

The unsophisticated level of understanding, sophomoric statements, and errors of fact are even more numerous and glaring than I would have expected from one of our state’s regulatory agencies.

Here’s an example of unsophisticated level of understand by Ed Ireland who is an economist NOT a scientist:

Ed Ireland, with the Barnett Shale trade group, said the research incorrectly assumed the wells emit more pollution than they actually do and that prevailing winds actually blow pollution away from the D-FW area.

I’m not a scientist. I’m not even an economist. But, I know that pollution is still in the atmosphere no matter which way the winds blow and that pollution blown away from me just becomes someone else’s problem.

As it turns out, the TCEQ supports the findings in the Armendariz study. STATE DATA SUPPORTS CONCLUSIONS OF EDF/SMU STUDY ON BARNETT SHALE EMISSIONS

Here’s an example of sophomoric statements made by a Devon Energy official:

Anonymous said…
I think the tsunami in Thailand was also due to barnett shale drilling. There is quite a bit of shale production in Oklahoma too, so I’m sure that’s why there are so many tornadoes up there. It’s a well known fact that most “natural” disasters aren’t really natural at all. In fact, big oil has actually caused them all, but paid corrupt industry officals to cover it up. Go get ’em TXSharon!

Clearly, Big Oil is using Big Tobacco’s play book.

• Keep ingredients and chemicals used top secret
• Claim there is no proof that hydraulic fracturing caused the over 300 documented cases of perfectly good water that suddenly became contaminated after drilling in the area.
• Claim there is proof that all the smog in the Barnett Shale area is caused by drilling despite a peer reviewed study.
• Intimidate detractors
• Throw in an occasional death threat

I’ve tried to keep track of the quakes.

• 10/20/08 Magnitude 2.5 – mid-cities
• 10/21/08 Magnitude 2.9 – mid-cities
• 10/31/08 Magnitude 3.0 – mid-cities
• 5/16/09 Magnitude 3.3 – mid-cities (some sources say there were 6 earthquakes in October)
• 6/2/09 Magnitude 2.8 – Cleburne
• 6/7/09 Magnitude 2.6 – Cleburne
• 6/8/09 Magnitude 2.3 – Cleburne