Quake not likely caused by oil, gas wells, state says
Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials are investigating an earthquake reported Wednesday in southeastern Ohio, but they don’t think it was related to oil and gas production.
The initial analysis shows that a 3.4-magnitude “naturally occurring seismic event” happened at 12:24 p.m. in Elk Township, just south of McArthur in Vinton County, and that it probably was associated with the Athens fault line, department spokesman Eric Heis said. No injuries were reported, he said.
Scientists with the department’s Division of Geological Survey calculated that the quake’s epicenter was 20 about 12.5 miles below the earth’s surface, Heis said. That’s a significant depth because any seismic event induced by a well usually occurs no more than 1.2 miles below the surface, he said.
“We’re still looking into it,” said Heis, who said the department received 21 “felt” reports about the quake.
Melanie Houston, director of oil and gas for the Ohio Environmental Council, said the earthquake renews the environmental coalition’s concerns about fracking.
Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to fracture rock formations and release trapped oil and gas. The wastewater that comes up with the oil and gas can be reused but eventually requires disposal — often by injection deep underground.
Hundreds of earthquakes have been linked to drilling operations and injection wells in Ohio and other states.
A wastewater-injection well induced 12 earthquakes in Youngstown in 2011, a state investigation found.
Wednesday’s earthquake follows a similar 3.0-magnitude earthquake in the Wayne National Forest in Monroe County that occurred on April 2. Eight permitted Utica-shale well sites are within 5 miles of the epicenter of that quake, according to the state.
“This is really concerning, these earthquakes occurring,” Houston said.
The Ohio Environmental Council is among the environmental and conservation organizations fighting plans to allow fracking in the Wayne National Forest. “We would be inviting these risks into Ohio’s only national forest,” Houston said.
Lyndsey Kleven, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said the industry group would not comment on the environmentalists’ concerns. However, association Executive Vice President Shawn Bennett has said in the past that the group wants to ensure safe development of oil and natural-gas reserves and that fracking can be done safely. He also has said Ohio regulators have comprehensive requirements in place to address the rare instances of seismic occurrences.
Elk Township, the suspected epicenter of Wednesday’s quake, is home to two producing oil and gas wells. Both have been in production since 1981, and the nearest injection well is more than 7 miles away, Heis said. The two production wells are traditional vertical wells that have never included fracking, he said.
“No connection between the April 2 events and (Wednesday’s) earthquake are currently thought to exist,” Heis said. “The wells that were shut down on April 2 have been allowed to produce, and seismic monitors remain in place to monitor any potential future events.”