Study: Mega injections of wastewater triggers more quakes
Source: AP
By SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The more oil and gas companies pump their saltwater waste into the ground, and the faster they do it, the more they have triggered earthquakes in the central United States, a massive new study found.
An unprecedented recent jump in quakes in America's heartland can be traced to the stepped up rate that drilling wastewater is injected deep below the surface, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science that looked at 187,570 injection wells over four decades.
It's not so much the average-sized injection wells, but the supercharged ones that are causing the ground to shake. Wells that pumped more than 12 million gallons of saltwater into the ground per month were far more likely to trigger quakes than those that put lesser amounts per month, the study from the University of Colorado found.
Although Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and other states have seen increases in earthquakes, the biggest jump has been in Oklahoma. From 1974 to 2008, Oklahoma averaged about one magnitude 3 or greater earthquake a year, but in 2013 and 2014, the state averaged more than 100 quakes that size per year, according to another earthquake study published Thursday. Since Jan. 1, the U.S. Geological Survey has logged more than 350 magnitude 3 or higher quakes in Oklahoma.
FULL story at link.
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2011 file photo, maintenance workers inspect the damage to one of the spires on Benedictine Hall at St. Gregory's University following a magnitude-5.0 earthquake in Shawnee, Okla. The more and faster oil and gas companies pump their saltwater waste into the ground, the more they have triggered earthquakes in the central United States, a massive new study from the University of Colorado found. Results were published in the journal Science on Thursday, June 18, 2015. Although Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and other states have seen increases in earthquakes, the biggest jump has been in Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c3e663ce474347b49b41a11af9582aad/study-mega-injections-wastewater-triggers-more-quakes
= new reply since forum marked as read
> the insurance companies could start refusing to insure the oil companies
> once the amount starts building that they have to pay out to people due
> to the oil companies triggering earthquakes.
It is extremely unlikely that the insurance companies would refuse the oil
companies.
At best, they would increase the oil companies premium (and the latter will
simply increase the price to the consumer in order to regain their profit level).
At worse, the insurance companies would designate those areas as having
an increased earthquake risk and so exclude cover for the people living there.
(c.f., flood zone remapping)
