Manmade Fracking Earthquakes in OK Cause Citizens to Get Innovative with Law

[Lodestar]

excerpt

When the Dills first moved to Coyle, Oklahoma, a rural town with just a few hundred people 37 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, they didn’t notice any earthquakes. That was in 2006. When energy prices hit record highs in 2008, oil and gas drillers flocked to Logan County. The Dills fretted about the noise and the pollution—one rig a half-mile down the road keeps Jim awake at night, Jackie says—but they did not expect the quakes.She says a local builder recently came to look at the house. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, Jackie,’ and he held my hand. The damage was catastrophic, greater than the value of our home.” They do not have earthquake insurance and cannot afford the repairs. “Even if we had the resources, the house could just get hit again,” she says.Logan County has been one of the hardest-hit areas. It started feeling the tremors in 2012. Since then, Jackie has kept a log, counting more than 20 quakes in the Coyle area registering 4.0 or higher and countless smaller ones, which have increased in frequency and intensity every year.

Drillers in Oklahoma rely on new advances in hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) technology, which involves injecting massive amounts of water deep underground, which can trigger seismic activity. In April 2015, the Oklahoma Geological Survey at the University of Oklahoma in Norman issued a statement that stunned many Oklahomans: The rate of earthquakes registering 3.0 or higher in the state had “increased from one and a half per year prior to 2008 to the current average of two and a half per day.” For the first time, it also placed the blame on the oil and gas industry for “the majority of recent earthquakes,” estimating the rate of quakes had spiked to “approximately 600 times” the historical average.

Even with that dire warning, members of the state Legislature and Oklahoma Republican Governor Mary Fallin have not acted fast enough, says Cory Williams, a lawyer and Democratic state representative for Stillwater, Oklahoma, which was hit by a magnitude-5.1 earthquake in February, the state’s third largest. (The biggest one was in 2011 in Prague, registering 5.6.)

http://www.newsweek.com/oklahoma-man-made-earthquakes-fracking-oil-companies-446435

[elljay]

1. You know what?

I feel for the progressives who live in Oklahoma, but the rest of them continue to vote for their climate- denying, pro-fracking extremist politicians. To them I say that it is time for some of that mythical Republican personal responsibility and disdain for government. Suck it up and deal with the problems you created all by yourself.

[Avalon Sparks]

2. Fuck The Fracking Companies

In 2015, Oklahoma was one of the most seismically active regions in the world, according to the USGS, registering more than 6,000 quakes—nearly 1,000 of them measuring 3.0 or higher. The increase is unprecedented for the number of earthquakes in one area.

Meanwhile....

The Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA), the industry’s largest trade group, has yet to acknowledge a direct link between energy companies’ practices and earthquakes, calling for further study of the issue. (OIPA did not return Newsweek's calls for comment.) Meanwhile, on March 28, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) published its annual seismic hazard forecast, which, for the first time, accounted for induced earthquakes. “ Wastewater disposal,” the agency wrote, “ was the primary cause for recent events in many areas of the [central and eastern U.S.].”


What the fuck are we doing to this country?
We've seen how much the local and Fed govt has helped Flint, meaning not at all.
So no one gives a shit about earthquake damage either...

Of course if a Terrorist poisoned Flints water or somehow caused these earthquakes, it would be a national crisis on CNN every hour.

In Texas the town of Denton passed an ordinance to ban fracking in city limits, it was overruled by the Texas Governor. See more:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33140732


it's so fucked up