S hake the Grou n d Down i n Au sti n

Manmade Earthquakes
Sharon Wilson! swilson@earthworksaction.org! www.earthworksaction.org January 13, 2014

Who I am:
! 5th generation Texan. ! Former oil & gas industry employee ! Landowner & mineral owner ! Witness of fracking impacts ! Volunteer organizer for many years. www.texassharon.com ! Currently Texas organizer for Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project.

Who we are:
Earthworks is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting people and the environment from the impacts of mineral and energy development while seeking sustainable solutions. Oil & Gas Accountability Project OGAP is a project of Earthworks

Risks from Unconventional Drilling aka Fracking:

! ! ! ! ! ! Water Air Climate Public health Wildlife Earthquakes

What's different is the volume of fracking fluids and the volume of flow-back that occurs in these wells. It is 50 to 100 times more than what was used in the conventional wells. ~Louis Allstadt, former Mobil V.P.

Wastewater Injection Induced Quakes:

! Triggered injection triggers an already stressed fault. ! Induced injection causes pressure that fractures the rock formation. ! We have known for 60 years that injection can induce earthquakes. ! Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver 1300 quakes in 4 years that peaked with M5.3 quake 1967. ! Rangely, CO. 1969 USGS experimented in how to minimize magnitude of quakes from injection for enhanced recovery. ! Wastewater injection has produced quakes of M4 and M5.

Wastewater Injection Induced Quakes - 2:

! M3 quake averages for Midwestern and Eastern U.S. 21/yr between 1967 to 2000; 100/yr between 2010 and 2012. ! M3 - M5 quakes have been scientifically linked to wastewater injection wells in: Arkansas (M4.7), Colorado (M5.3), Ohio (M3.9), Oklahoma (M5.7), and Texas (M4.8). ! Induced seismicity may be delayed for many years, may not end for years after injection ends and may occur many miles from the injection point. ! The maximum possible magnitude of induced earthquakes is unknown.

Fracking Induced Quakes:

! Fracking intentionally cracks rock/shale. ! Fracking has produced quakes of M2 and M3 ! Oklahoma in 2011 116 quakes from M0.06 to M2.9 occurred near a well being hydraulically fractured. ! British Columbia 2009 to 2011 38 quakes from M2.2 and M3.8 caused by fracking fluids injection into a fault.

Other Induced Quakes:

! 18 M3 > quakes in Snyder area may have been triggered by CO2 injections. ! Eagle Ford Shale - 62 probable quakes, complex geography, seismic activity associated with injection and extraction.

"#$teImpact Map

Alternatives to injection:
Why not recycle? Devon Energy estimates it costs about 75% more to recycle than to inject in a disposal well. Texas Water Development Board study found minimal recycling in Texas: ! 2% of total water used in Permian Basin. ! 5% of total water used in Barnett Shale. ! 0% of total water used in Eagle Ford Shale. Industry will not recycle until its mandated.

Alternatives to injection - 2:
What about reuse?

Be careful what you wish for.

Possible Recommendations:
Given the gaps in the science of the issue, regulators currently dont know how to safely regulate fracking-quake risk even if they wanted to. Key things we dont know: ! The maximum possible magnitude that can reached by quakes induced by fracking or wastewater injection. ! The maximum distance from which fracking or wastewater injection could induce a quake. ! Why some frack jobs and wastewater injection wells induce quakes, and others not. ! How long the risk of a quake persists after a frack job or wastewater injection occurs.

Possible Recommendations:
! Require seismic analysis and monitoring over a 2 mile radius for 3 to 6 months prior to applying for a permit for a commercial or non-commercial injection well. Results must be included in the permit application and made publicly available. ! Require operators to provide information on the structural geology within a two mile radius of new proposed injection well sites. ! Require ongoing seismic monitoring within two miles of permitted injection well site. All seismic monitoring data must be publicly available via the internet on a real time basis%!!

Possible Recommendations - 2:
! Require monitoring and reporting on a daily basis of the quantity of waste injected, the minimum and maximum daily injection pressure and the daily annular pressure. ! Establish trigger criteria that will require a decrease in the quantity of waste injected and/or injection pressure or cease injection of waste. ! Establish protocols for ceasing waste injection and for additional monitoring requirements following decrease in quantity of waste injected, decrease in injection pressure and/or cease of injection waste all together.

Possible Recommendations - 3:
! The monitoring and reporting requirements in recommendations 2, 3, 4 and 5 must be required for all existing injection wells and all wells where active stimulation/pressurization has occurred. ! Establish a mechanism for community members in a 5mile radius of an injection well to report tremors, describe the intensity of the tremors, date and time of tremors, and structural damage. !! ! Establish a mechanism for community members to identify the location and distance of the nearest injection well by name and serial number. Make this information publicly available.

Possible Recommendations - 3:
! Allow community complaints to be accompanied by photos of structural damage ! Require injection well operators to report and record any indication of tremors in the area of their injection well, and the injection pressure and annular pressure at the time of each tremor event.

Texas Railroad Commission:

! 296,000 active oil and gas wells in Texas were uninspected in 2011. ! Of 55,000 violations found by investigators, RRC sought enforcement for only 2%. ! Penalties are so weak that it is cheaper for violators to pay the penalty than comply with the law: the total value of financial penalties in Texas in 2009 was less than the value of the gas contained in a newly drilled gas well.

Texas Railroad Commission:

Barry Smitherman Chairman

David Porter Commissioner

Christi Craddick Commissioner