Ohio is a seismic-monitoring leader

YOUNGSTOWN — In the five years since a magnitude-4.0 injection well-induced earthquake jolted the Mahoning Valley, Ohio has become a leader in seismic monitoring, state regulatory officials say.

That memorable, locally unprecedented earthquake rattled the Valley shortly after 3 p.m. Dec. 31, 2011.

It was one of 13 tremors between March 17, 2011, and Jan. 13, 2012, which the Ohio Department of Natural Resources determined were caused by a 9,000-foot-deep D&L Energy Inc. injection well on Ohio Works Drive in Youngstown, which was used for brine disposal.

Brine is the salty, chemical-laden water that returns to the surface after the hydraulic-fracturing (fracking) process that unlocks natural gas and oil deep underground.

Before that series of Youngstown earthquakes began, no quakes centered in the Mahoning Valley had ever been recorded.

“I believe we’ve had no felt [earthquake] events in [Ohio] injection wells since the Youngstown event,” of Dec. 31, 2011, said Jim Zehringer, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, whose Division of Oil and Gas regulates the drilling industry.

Rick Simmers, the state’s Division of Oil and Gas chief, seconded Zehringer’s observation and clarified that “felt” earthquakes are generally of a magnitude 2.5 or greater.

Lesser quakes are referred to as microseismic events, he noted.

Zehringer and Simmers were referring to the lack of felt injection-well-induced quakes in the last five years.

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