Although they don’t know for certain, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) is assuming that Hilcorp’s Utica Shale drilling and fracking in the Youngstown area a month ago is the “probable” cause of a series of earthquakes in the area (see # of Youngstown Earthquakes go from 2 to 11 – Fracking to Blame?). A few of the earthquakes were barely felt by some people. Most of the 11 quakes were not noticeable by humans on the surface. On Friday the ODNR instituted a new policy requiring drilling and fracking near known faults and active earthquake areas to use a seismic monitor. If a 1.0 or higher quake occurs during drilling and fracking, all drilling will stop until it’s investigated.
If we assume the Ohio quakes in March were caused by fracking over a “previously unknown microfault” as the ODNR assumes, this would be the fourth such instance of fracking itself causing an earthquake–out of 60,000+ horizontally fracked wells (see Fracking has (so far) Triggered Earthquakes 3x – Out of 60K Wells). Statistically speaking it’s still zero. It’s important to a) acknowledge it can happen, but b) keep it in perspective. You have a greater chance of being struck by lightening than of experiencing a fracking-triggered earthquake. It only happens in specific, rare circumstances. Here’s the statement (and map) from the ODNR on how they’re going to treat drilling near faults and previous earthquake zones…
