Wastewater data is meager as more quakes hit Texas
Oil and gas operations are causing earthquakes in Texas. There’s really no debate on that point: Scientists, oil executives and regulators agree.
Texas used to get one or two noticeable quakes — magnitude 3.0 and above — each year. Now it’s averaging about 12. In 2015, 22 hit the state.
At the same time, oil and gas companies are injecting double the volumes of wastewater into the earth as they did a decade ago. Scientists say the relationship between the two is no coincidence.
But which wastewater wells are causing which quakes? That’s a difficult question, made more difficult by the paucity of data on the subject.
There are so few seismometers in Texas, researchers say they sometimes can’t pinpoint a quake’s epicenter within 100 miles. The problems should be fixed by the state-sponsored TexNet program, which will install 55 earthquake sensors across the state, tripling the number now in place.
But that leaves another problem for scientists: They find it devilishly difficult to get their hands on the specific amount of water injected into waste wells by oil and gas companies. Always behind The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, only publishes aggregated wastewater volumes reported by companies paid to dispose of the water. Most of the total — about two-thirds, according to the research firm IHS Markit — is dumped into private wells owned by oil and gas companies that handle their own disposal.
To get the full scope of volumes disposed, data analysts at the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology have to painstakingly examine every disposal form turned in to the Railroad Commission and compile such figures themselves, or pay firms like IHS for its data.
Moreover, the companies report figures on delayed schedules, so specific data may not be available for at least a year after disposal.
Picture that: An earthquake happens. But scientists can’t figure out immediately if there was recent disposal well activity.
“It’s very difficult,” Michael Young, associate director of the bureau’s environmental division, told me.“We’re always behind.” Broad brush?
Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton wants his agency to work better with the Bureau of Economic Geology. The details matter to Sitton. He says earthquakes and disposal wells may be connected — in a few cases. But he thinks the scientific community is also painting with too broad of a brush.
Sitton does not think, for instance, that the sharp increase in Dallas County quakes is attributable to wastewater wells.
The closest wells to the highest concentration of earthquake epicenters were 9 miles away, he said. Disposal volumes weren’t increasing. And the earthquakes didn’t happen at the same time as injections.
“The likelihood here is just much, much less,” Sitton told me. “Yes, it’s possible. But notably less than in other areas.”
“It’s very difficult. We’re always behind.” Michael Young, Bureau of Economic Geolog y