Skip to content
Business
Link copied to clipboard

In Oklahoma and Texas, concerns over drilling, earthquakes

EDMOND, Okla. - Central Oklahoma residents are demanding to know whether earthquake swarms that have shaken their homes and their nerves in recent months are caused by oil and gas drilling operations in the area that use hydraulic fracturing.

Austin Holland, research seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, gestures to a chart of Oklahoma earthquakes as he talks about recent earthquake activity at his offices at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., Thursday, June 26, 2014. Holland said the agency is closely monitoring the area's seismic activity to determine whether the earthquakes are a natural phenomenon or are man-made. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Austin Holland, research seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, gestures to a chart of Oklahoma earthquakes as he talks about recent earthquake activity at his offices at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., Thursday, June 26, 2014. Holland said the agency is closely monitoring the area's seismic activity to determine whether the earthquakes are a natural phenomenon or are man-made. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)Read moreAP
    by By Tim Talley, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

EDMOND, Okla. - Central Oklahoma residents are demanding to know whether earthquake swarms that have shaken their homes and their nerves in recent months are caused by oil and gas drilling operations in the area that use hydraulic fracturing.

About 500 people attended a meeting with regulators and research geologists on Thursday night in Edmond. Many urged the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, to ban or severely restrict the wells that are used to dispose of wastewater from drilling and that some scientists say could be linked to the quakes.

"We're going to have people hurt and damaged," said Angela Spotts of Stillwater, who has collected names for a petition calling for a ban on deep-well injections of wastewater.

Edmond resident Mary Fleming said she had experienced "maybe 100" earthquakes, and said they shake her house several times a week, causing cracks inside the home.

"The house rocks. The bed lurches," Fleming said.

Earthquakes used to be almost unheard of on the vast stretches of prairie that unfold across Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, but they have become common in recent years. Oklahoma has recorded 230 so far this year, including a magnitude 3.6 earthquake southwest of Guthrie recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey early Thursday.

Though most have been too weak to cause serious damage or endanger lives, they have raised suspicions that the shaking might be connected to the oil and gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, especially the wells in which the industry disposes of its wastewater.

After years of being harangued by anxious residents, governments in all three states are confronting the issue, reviewing scientific data, holding public discussions, and considering new regulations. The states are trying to reconcile the scientific data with the interests of their citizens and the oil and gas industry.

"How many people here woke up at 12:30 this morning?" Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner asked the crowd as he recalled the time of the early morning temblor. Almost everyone raised their hand.

"Yeah, me too," Skinner said. "What is happening is frightening. It's worrisome. The search for answers is very, very real, and very personal."