Families Blame Fracking For Destructive Quakes

Well, it looks like this will be a case for the courts to decide, and the process has begun. Finally.

LITTLE ROCK (CN) - Fracking by Chesapeake oil and Billiton Petroleum caused "thousands of earthquakes" that damaged homes in central Arkansas, two families claim in Federal Court.

Johnny and Patsy Miller and Christopher and Rebecca Krisell sued Chesapeake Operating and BHP Billiton Petroleum, claiming their fracking "caused thousands of earthquakes in mini-clusters and swarms in central Arkansas in 2010 and 2011," including Arkansas' largest earthquake in the past 35 years.

Both families live in Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock.

This is near and dear to me as it's just south of where I live. However, it's important for another, far more critical reason. This is outside, but close to, the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Again, it's important to note, it is outside the zone itself and by no small margin. However, this is all happening far below where man fully understands the forces of nature and the process is just incredibly destructive.

This is about the water generated during the process of hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas. It's pretty nasty waster and sometime, a long time ago, someone got the idea that 'out of sight, out of mind' would do just fine for gas wells and the gas industry overall.

"Although some of this wastewater is recycled and reused, for the most part, it is disposed of by injecting it back into the ground into other wells commonly referred to as 'wastewater disposal injection wells,' 'disposal wells,' or 'injection wells.'"

Chesapeake owned and operated injection wells throughout Faulkner County, near Greenbrier, the families say.

The complaint claims that "scientists have known for half a century that disposal well operations will cause earthquakes. In fact, since the late 1960s scientists studying whether earthquakes and seismic activities can be induced by certain human actions have accepted that induced seismic activity can and does occur."

Source: Courthouse News

I think the most important part of this for those of us in the central Midwest region is that it's going into formal court proceedings for Arkansas now. They'll have experts from both sides and get some things into the public record in the process. It will be important to watch and follow, is what I'm thinking here.

The story seemed of particular interest to share for what it starts to get into there on artificially induced earthquakes. It's more in just that initial filing than I was really aware of. I can't wait to see what more comes into the record as the case goes on.

I'm pretty sure that the laws were written to protect companies against things like this. If there is no prior proof that has been accepted by our government than the company is held harmless if they got the required permits. It is a waste of time to fight this, the court will determine that the legally produced wells are in compliance with the laws.

Because the gas is used for the good of the people, there are no ways to challenge this. The only way there will be a settlement is if it costs more for the company to fight the lawsuit than it will cost to pay the people off and put a gag order on them.

We have been led to believe that we have to frack the hell out of the earth to supply the gas. They are fracking enough for a hundred years of storage. Why? Because the government knows that it will be proved that fracking is going to screw things up and it will be made illegal in the future after information proving this is proven to be real. This way all the wells are already drilled. The problem is that they are fracking so much that they will cause major environmental problems. What a mess.

I'm not fully knowledgeable on fracking, but my understanding is they use high pressure water to split rock to retrieve trapped gas?
Looking a little into the future - All the sheets of rock that once separated us from the underlying dangers will have been reduced to nothing but crumbling rock. What will happen? will we see large area's of countryside start to sink? Will we see what lays deep below start its way up towards the surface?

Fracking seems a dangerous way to produce gas if you ask me.

DP

Corporations don't care about people or ecology, it's all about the bottom line, market share, dividends money. And they're not going to stop urtil the last drop of oil is pulled from the earth, the last tree is felled and the last bit of clean water turned to poison.

reply to post by VoidHawk


I found this on the net for a diagram of what fracking looks like.



I also found another story from August that gives more perspective as an ongoing process...

In 2010 and 2011, the quiet farming town of Greenbrier, Arkansas, was rattled by a swarm of more than 1,000 minor earthquakes. The biggest, with a magnitude of 4.7, had its epicenter less than 1,500 feet from Davis’s front porch. “This should not be happening in Greenbrier,” Davis recalls thinking. He said the shaking damaged the support beams under an addition to his home.

Then came another surprise: University of Memphis and Arkansas Geological Survey scientists said the quakes were likely triggered by the disposal of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing – commonly known as fracking – into deep, underground wells. That finding prompted regulators from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to order several wells in the area shut down, and the earthquakes soon subsided.

It also prompted Davis and more than a dozen of his neighbors to file five lawsuits in federal court against Chesapeake Operating Inc, as the owner in 2010 of two injection wells near Davis’ home, and BHP Billiton, which purchased Chesapeake’s shale gas assets in 2011.

Source

That source is very detailed and specific to just Arkansas, which is my primary focus here as it's my backyard so to speak.

The story indicates the first of the cases is due in March of 2014, so it's still in progress. If anyone has more to add for detail or information, feel free to jump in.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


That pictures gives the illusion that its all very safe because it lays far below the water supply and far below the surface. The very real truth is that every site is different and nobody knows whats below the surface. As mentioned by those living close by - The contaminated water could run along already existing cracks. That alone is reason enough to stop the fracking because they can't honestly say they can contain the toxic water.

Have yo heard Susan's story?

Thanks for asking, we are still hanging in here, just waiting to see what's going to happen next in this state. The damage on the house gets worse day by day, but when it cracked the slab in more than one place and loosened the trusses where they are pulled over an inch or more away in places what else can you expect. It's not going to stabilize and stop moving now that it's cracked, have new buckles showing up in the floors that were not there and cracks in walls getting larger. All structural engineering reports and contractors won't guarantee any repair work for even 30 days, recommendation is to tear down and rebuild, so it's still a waiting game for a group that wants to claim they are not responsible when they have admitted they are. They just don't want to pay for the damage they caused and not just to us but others.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000