A former Obama administration adviser says states in the oil patch are waking up to the realities of earthquakes potentially caused by fracking, stoking concerns among GOP lawmakers who see the issue as a political red flag for oil and gas advocates.
Environmental Defense Fund policy chief Elgie Holstein, a former adviser to President Obama, raised new findings on earthquakes posed by hydraulic fracturing in shale regions at a House science and technology committee hearing on fracking Thursday.
“Just this week, the Oklahoma Geological Survey released a statement concluding that it is ‘very likely’ that most of the recent earthquakes — and there have been hundreds — in the central part of the state were ‘triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells,'” Holstein said.
“Accordingly, numerous states have rushed to implement new monitoring and reporting requirements for fluid disposal wells. At least one state, Ohio, has implemented new monitoring, reporting and control requirements related to hydraulic fracturing and seismicity,” Holstein said in prepared remarks.
“Arkansas has banned disposal wells in a large area deemed vulnerable to induced seismicity. Oklahoma now requires a halt to water injection below certain geologic intervals. Kansas has cut in half permissible fluid injection volumes in certain geologically sensitive areas,” Holstein added.
Holstein’s raising of the new findings incensed GOP lawmakers at the hearing, causing them to focus on whether the Oklahoma findings could become overly “politicized” to the detriment of oil and gas development.
The Oklahoma geologic survey’s findings were made public earlier this week, indicating that it had found that the disposal of water used in fracking “likely” caused tremors in the state.
Observers say the significance of the Oklahoma findings is the state’s acknowledgement of the issue, which in previous years has downplayed the correlation between shale-gas water disposal and seismic activity.
Oklahoma found that it was not hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, itself that caused the quakes. It was the injection of wastewater taken from fracking wells and placed underground for waste containment that caused the increase in tremors. The high pressure used to inject the millions of gallons of waste water underground is likely the culprit, the state found.
Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., questioned whether the earthquakes might become an overstated concern. Hundreds of earthquakes, “that’s frightening,” he said. He pressed Holstein, “what was the dollar damage? My guess it’s not very much,” suggesting that not all seismic activity should be considered earthquakes.
“Does your organization consider any seismic activity an earthquake?” Rohrabacher asked. Holstein answered, “No.”
Holstein said in his opening remarks that his organization believes “many of the issues” surrounding fracking “are legitimate,” as “it is a heavy industrial activity” and states are deploying resources to protect their constituents.
Simon Lomax, with the oil industry-funded Energy in Depth group, responded that his problem is how these findings will become “politicize[d]” in order “to build a case to oppose fracking.” He said waste water injection wells have been used for decades without incident.
Rohrabacher said when an offshore well in California suffered a spill in 1969, the coverage that most newspapers picked up was a young woman waiving a rubber duck covered in oil, yelling “murderers.” Meanwhile, a council hearing discussing the future of drilling applying a scientific approach was ignored. He pointed out that no one listened to the scientific evidence on offshore oil drilling in that case. Instead, the sensationalist coverage had the most impact.
When it comes to the future of fracking, lawmakers should remember the “rubber duck” story, Rohrabacher advised. The Santa Barbara spill is considered the largest in U.S. waters. He explained that the alternatives to not fracking should be weighed. If oil extraction is not done by one set of means, then another set of means will be applied, and those could be more devastating, he argued.
Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, who comes from a shale-rich area of his state, asked a Texas regulator at the hearing to parse the difference between fracking causing quakes and waste water injection causing the tremors. Christi Craddick, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, answered the high-pressure injection of waste water into containment wells is the cause.
Donald Siegel of the University of Syracuse suggested “the remedy is to inject at much lower rates.” As far as “allaying public fears, not sure how to do it.” He said he doesn’t deny what is occurring, and there have been studies by the U.S. Geological Survey that have identified the risks. “Most of the [tremors] you can’t feel, but some you do feel.”
“I feel them,” responded the committee’s top Democrat, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas.
Craddick said the Texas commission is “looking for answers,” and she is “not sure it is always oil and gas” causing the quakes, but the commission is trying to be responsive. She noted that commission has hired its first seismologist in its history.
