Texas Regulators Investigate Link Between Fracking And Earthquakes

State regulators are considering whether fracking injection wells are the cause of recent earthquakes in Texas.

The state’s oil-and-gas regulator is “scrutinizing some of the biggest U.S. energy producers in the wake of several earthquakes that have rocked the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year,” The Wall Street Journal reported. In June, authorities began “a series of hearings in Austin to assess some oil companies’ role in causing the temblors.”

A handful of companies have been asked to perform tests on wastewater wells near Venus, which was hit by an earthquake in May. Some Texas towns have experienced more earthquakes than usual this year.

“Since 2008, the northern region of Texas experienced four swarms of earthquakes, more than 130 temblors in all. Concentrated within the Dallas metro area, the frequency of this activity has dramatically increased this year. There were 25 small quakes in January alone,” CNN reported.

The industry has disputed that fracking injection wells are linked to earthquakes in Texas. The Journal reported in a separate article:

Exxon Mobil Corp. rejected any role in a string of recent earthquakes hitting the Dallas-Fort Worth area, saying geological data points to natural causes, not its operations. Officials with Exxon natural-gas subsidiary XTO Energy presented engineering and geological data to state regulators that they said show quakes that hit one suburb in 2013 originated far deeper than a nearby well it had used to dispose of wastewater from oil-and-gas operations.

Tim George, a lawyer for the company, said nature is responsible for the earthquakes.

“Those are deep-seated basement fault movements,” he said, per the report “These are naturally occurring movements, not man made.”

A study co-authored by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, a federal agency, has previously linked earthquakes to injection wells. University of Colorado Professor Shemin Ge, who worked on the study, explained the link in an announcement from the school.

“Induced seismicity is one of the primary challenges we face as shale gas and unconventional hydrocarbon development continues to expand,” he said. “Adhering to best practices could reduce the risk of inducing seismicity. Some best practices during injection operations include avoiding injecting at high rates, avoiding major faults, and keeping a close eye on how pore pressure changes around injection wells. Before permitting, thorough site-specific hydrogeological studies should be conducted to assess the magnitude and extent of pore pressure changes from the injection.”

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