Ohio official admits possible link between fracking and earthquakes; bans disposal injection [View all]

[garybeck]

Official: 4 Ohio fluid-injection wells cannot open in wake of quake
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/01/us/ohio-earthquake/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

(CNN) -- State leaders have ordered that four fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio will be "indefinitely" prohibited from opening in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, an official said.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well -- which injects "fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains -- was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.

Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011.