W.Va. experts: Quakes from fracking nothing to get shook up about
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Ronald R. McDowell, Ph.D, senior research geologist at the West Virginia Geological and Survey Center, demonstrates on a chart how the proximity of rise and fall points tell how close or far away an earthquake is. McDowell says that there is no way of knowing with absolute certainty whether regional fracking is the source of earthquakes.
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
A seismometer, which measures ground vibrations, is shown at West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey Center at Cheat Lake.
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
A seismometer, which measures ground vibrations, is shown at West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey Center at Cheat Lake.
Two experts said the processes involved in the natural gas drilling process are linked to earthquakes, but should not be a serious cause for alarm.
West Virginia University geology professor Tim Carr, Ph.D., is a longtime expert on petroleum geology.
“The bottom line is that earthquakes from hydraulic fracturing are not a big problem and can be easily managed,” he said.
Ronald McDowell, Ph.D., is senior research geologist at the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey Center at Cheat Lake. The center has equipment that monitors seismic activity.
“You basically have to have sensitive hearing or feeling like dogs to be able to tell that a Magnitude 2 earthquake was happening right below your feet,” he said.
In early March, five small earthquakes up to 3.0 in magnitude shook Mahoning County, Ohio, which is close to the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. According to news reports, Youngstown, Ohio, experienced a separate series of earthquakes in 2011 and 2012, but those were linked to nearby deep underground injection wells used to store fracking waste water.
According to news reports, Ohio Department of Natural Resources geologists believe the sand and water injected into the well during the hydraulic fracturing process may have increased pressure on an unknown microfault in the area, the agency responsible for regulating the state’s oil and gas industry said in a statement.
Carr explained that in the case of injection wells, fluid can migrate into nearby fractures and fault zones, which relieves pressure inside the fault and allows slippage to occur.
“That does happen and an injection of fluids can cause earthquakes — there’s no question about that,” he said.
Carr said water is a powerful force that can move the earth. He used an analogy about toy rockets that are propelled high in the air after a child pumps up the water pressure.
“Water has a lot of force,” he said. “Imagine with water, you can pump one of those rockets up and send it in the air. Water doesn’t compress very easily.”
Carr said events in Ohio are not cause for alarm because it was “very, very rare” — an exception to the rule.
McDowell spoke in general terms about potential problems associated with fault lines.
“When you get to a fault line, all bets are off,” he said. “If you get into a fault that you didn’t know was there, and start injecting fluid into it, the chances are that something is going to happen. Basically, injecting fluid is causing extra pressure and you are forcing that fault apart. But, if you put a little pressure on it, nothing is going to happen. If you a put a lot of pressure on it, there’s a possibility you could get some slip on that fault.”
Carr said companies conduct geological survey maps before drilling, but sometimes mistakes are made.
“Every once in awhile, people do drill wells into faults and it causes earthquakes and, maybe they are ‘feelable’, like Youngstown, but there was no perceptual damage as far as I know,” he said. “But, this is something that should be watched. It’s happened before in other states. It’s happened since the 1950s.”
Carr said because of regulatory oversight, no one intentionally invests millions of dollars developing a well site near a potential fault line only to have it shut down by regulators because of the risks of potential earthquakes.
Carr said there are several thousand natural gas wells employing fracking processes throughout Appalachia. He said they are monitored and present virtually no risk of earthquakes because they are microseismic, or very, very small.
“It does cause seismic events that are of magnitude that are very small and can’t be picked up by humans,” he said.
Carr said less than a handful of wells have caused trouble in the region compared to the thousands of working wells that are in the ground.
“We are not in any danger, but it has to be watched,” he said. “These wells can be managed and it is not dangerous. They’ve got to be stopped by regulators and they are.”
Carr said a truck, perhaps one that is heavily loaded, is more easily felt than a microseismic earthquake that may take place at least a mile beneath the surface. He said the quakes are so small in most cases that special equipment with extremely sensitive monitors is needed to record such seismic activity.
“No. You’d never feel any of it,” he said.
Carr said there are three man-made causes of earthquakes: coal mining, filling a reservoir with water and injection of fluid deep into the ground as it relates to oil and gas production.
“I’m from California, so I know what an earthquake feels like,” he said.
McDowell said while Pennsylvania is in the process of putting a lot of seismic-monitoring equipment in place, West Virginia already has several temporary monitoring stations throughout the state. McDowell said aside from Pittsburgh, he is not aware of other seismic-monitoring equipment in the immediate area.
McDowell said the equipment can not absolutely pinpoint what causes quakes. He said the geologic survey center doesn’t always pick up anything when drillers are working that deep because any seismic activity associated with the work is so small.
McDowell said recordings measure a magnitude between .05 and 1.8 on the Richter scale. He said though the equipment will record anything less than a magnitude 2.0 on the Richter Scale is submerged among all the other vibrations such as traffic noise, ground noise and wind.
“Even if you are standing dead center on top of that, you may not feel anything,” McDowell said.
Carr concludes with a bit of a reality check — energy flows are necessary for civilization.
“Doing energy is a dangerous thing,” he said. “There’s no question about that — be it nuclear energy, fossil energy, solar energy, windmills –there’s always going to be something. Energy is intrinsically something that needs to be regulated and watched because it all has some sort of impact on the environment.”