Eric Heis, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said the department is taking a number of precautions to address a recent report that linked hydraulic fracturing to seismic activity.
Some students might recall a mild earthquake that shook Ohio University in November of 2013 — but Ohio officials haven’t been able to forget incidents like these.
Eric Heis, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said the department is taking a number of precautions to address a recent report that linked hydraulic fracturing to seismic activity.
But Heis said those precautions are not likely to have any immediate impact on Athens County, which has no fracturing wells.
The report, published in early January by three geologists at Miami University, found that 77 earthquakes in Mahoning County — ranging from magnitudes of less than 1.0 to 3.0 — could have been related to hydraulic fracturing activities in the area.
Those earthquakes were connected to two fracking wells in Poland Township. Athens County has no fracking wells.
Another report, released by ODNR in 2012, linked 12 seismic events to an injection well in Youngstown, also in Mahoning County.
Injection wells are pumped with wastewater collected from hydraulic fracturing.
Athens County currently has seven of these wells, according to a map from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
According to a news release issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources after the Miami University study, as of April of 2014 the department is implementing new policies in order to better monitor the effects of fracking in seismically active areas, including stronger permit conditions for drilling.
Under the regulations, fracking wells built in areas near a known fault line will require seismic activity monitors to be set up. If those monitors register seismic activity higher than a 1.0 magnitude, the department will launch an investigation and temporarily halt fracking activities, according to the release.
The regulations do not offer a plan to respond to seismic activity caused by injection wells, although there are currently 19 monitors in place to monitor injection wells in the state. There are none in Athens County, Heis said, and there are currently no plans to install any.
“The conclusions drawn by ODNR and the recent Miami study suggest that seismic events occur when a well is drilled near a previously unknown fault line,” Heis said.
He said there was no evidence to suggest that any wells in Athens County lie on a fault line.
But Heather Cantino, an organizer with the Athens County Fracking Action Network, said there is legitimate cause for concern in Athens, especially at the rate injection wells are being implemented in the region.
She said there was an injection well within a mile of the epicenter of the 2013 earthquake.
“It’s been known for a while that injection leads to earthquakes,” she said.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="1d274950-2cb0-11e4-a142-001a4bcf6878"}}
Cantino said that although the initial fracking processes could cause some seismic activity, injection wells are the main concern in Athens County. The combination of increased pressure and chemical reactions is more likely to cause seismic activity, she said.
Cantino said there is a possibility that injection wells were a contributing factor to the quake in November 2013.
Although the well was not receiving waste at that time, she said the built-up of pressure in the well, plus any ground disturbance that occurred at the time due to the creation of the Nelsonville Bypass, could have been enough to cause the earthquake.
“We’re not saying that it was (caused by injection), but it’s certainly not possible to rule out the possibility,” she said.
At the least, she said, it shows that Southeast Ohio is a seismically active region.
Athens City Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th Ward, said that although earthquakes are a serious concern when it comes to fracking, she believes the infiltration of fracking waste in the region’s waterways is a more pressing matter.
“I think (fracking companies) have sort of a big black dot on us that says ‘Oh we’ll just make them a dumping ground for fracking waste,’” she said.
wp198712@ohio.edu | @wtperkins
