Valley earthquakes jolt 12 states to start regulation movement

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio is leading a group of at least 12 drilling states working with seismologists from energy companies, government agencies and universities across the U.S. on how best to detect and regulate human-induced earthquakes.

The initiative follows Ohio’s determination in April of a probable link between the drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing and five small tremors March 10 at a fracking well at the Carbon Limestone Landfill in Poland Township.

In 2012, Gov. John Kasich halted disposal of fracking wastewater surrounding a well site on Youngstown’s West Side after a series of earthquakes later tied to a deep-injection well. D & L Energy, the company that ran the injection well, has disputed the link.

Ohio Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers said in an Associated Press interview that state regulators are seeking up-to-date information so they can develop appropriate detection procedures and regulatory practices.

“I think we’re being proactive in some ways,” he said. “We’re not waiting until something bad happens. We’re trying to figure out how to, in a regulatory sense, address this rather than waiting.”

Simmers said a dozen states, including Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma, showed up at the first meeting of the States First initiative last month. Also in attendance were representatives of the Groundwater Protection Council, the state-led Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and research institutions such as Stanford University, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas.

This week, a second meeting was arranged that will be expanded to additional interested parties, he said.

“What we’re seeing is states are seeing an increase in [seismic] activity,” Simmers said. “Then we have to take a step back and say which of these events are anthropogenic,” or human-induced.

Ohio environmental activist Teresa Mills said putting a stop to fracking is the most effective way to halt the quakes. She said the known link has already been established.

“You can’t regulate away an earthquake. That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Mills, of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. “You can stop man-made earthquakes by not doing what’s causing them.”

But Simmers said regulators don’t believe it’s that simple. He said the uptick in measured earthquake activity could be resulting from other factors.