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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas went big on oil. Earthquakes followed.
Its been a big winter for earthquakes in West Texas. A string of small tremors rocked Midland County on December 15 and 16, followed a week later by a magnitude-4.5 quake, the second-strongest to hit the region in the last decade. Then a magnitude-4.2 quake shook the town of Stanton and another series of small earthquakes hit nearby Reeves County.
Thats an unsettling pattern for a state that, until recently, wasnt an earthquake state at all. Before 2008, Texans experienced just one or two perceptible earthquakes a year. But Texas now sees hundreds of yearly earthquakes of at least magnitude 2.5, the minimum humans can feel, and thousands of smaller ones.
The reason why is disconcerting: Seismologists say that one of the states biggest industries is upsetting a delicate balance deep underground. They blame the oil and gas business and particularly a technique called wastewater injection for waking up ancient fault lines, turning a historically stable region into a shaky one, and opening the door to larger earthquakes that Texas might not be ready for.
The state is finally trying to change that. In December, the Texas Railroad Commission the state agency that regulates oil and gas operations and no longer has anything to do with railroads suspended wastewater injection at 33 sites across a region where more than half a million people live. This is a notable turnaround for the Railroad Commission, which until recently did not acknowledge a link between oil and gas operations and earthquakes, and might be a sign of just how serious the earthquakes have gotten.
https://www.vox.com/22891806/texas-earthquakes-oil-gas-drilling-wastewater-reinjection
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Texass. And damn Big Oil. (Also Oklahoma)
2naSalit
(86,612 posts)When they would start over there. It's simple physics.
TheRealNorth
(9,481 posts)But I worry we have become highly dependent on Natural Gas as an energy replacement for coal.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)If they do, they need to stop it.
scarytomcat
(1,706 posts)ground water pollution and earthquakes