The Fracks of Life

As we seek certain forms of energy – from traditional fossil fuels to alternative forms of power generation such as geothermal – we have to play with subsurface pressures. In some cases we inject liquids into the earth to force out pockets of natural gas to be used in power generation. “Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, [“fracking” or hydraulic fracturing] involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas.” New York Times, November 2, 2009. An exemption from our environmental laws – known as the Halliburton loophole (to be discussed in a later blog) – was shepherded through Congress in 2005 by then Vice-President Richard Cheney, once Halliburton’s CEO. Studies from the Environmental Protection Agency are beginning to show that these toxic chemicals have made their way into the water supplies of communities all over the United States, creating serious health risks.

But another aspect of fracking is less understood, but appears to pose an entirely different risk to the areas that surround these natural gas exploitation efforts. Earthquakes. On December 31^st, the earth in northeastern Ohio shook. “The 4.0-magnitude quake was centered near Youngstown, reported the U.S. Geological Survey and the Ohio Earthquake Information Center…The earthquake at 3:05 p.m. was felt as far away as Michigan, Ontario, Pennsylvania and New York, reported Michael C. Hansen, state geologist and coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network, part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Geological Survey.” Ohio.com, January 3^rd. A smaller Ohio quake registered 2.4 on the Richter Scale on Christmas eve.

The interesting feature is that these tremors, and similar quakes in Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas, were all associated with fracking: “There is ‘little doubt’ that the quake is linked to injection wells that the state and the owner agreed on Friday to shut down, [state geologist and coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network Michael C.] Hansen said… James Zehringer, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, announced the closing of two injection wells in Youngstown Township owned by Northstar Disposal Services LLC and operated by D&L Energy Inc… The order to close came despite the fact that the state has been unable to prove that the wells, which are 9,000 feet deep, are the cause of the earthquakes…The wells were used to dispose of salty brine wastes from gas and oil drilling by pumping them under pressure into rock formations deep underground.” Ohio.com. Can’t absolutely prove it, but the statistical coincidences of such occurrences is proof enough for most geologists and many state officials.

Another “don’t mess with Mother Nature” source of energy, geothermal power, uses untapped steam beneath the earth and to heat additional water (often pumped from the surface down into the heated subsurface) to power turbines and generate electricity. But when this pressure is slowly released and as water from the surface is pumped below, the cracking of rocks from the injection of cooler water and/or the undermining of pressure to support geological structures underground, the possibility of underground collapse – an earthquake – suddenly becomes an unwanted potential side effect of this form of alternative energy.

In 2006, Switzerland put such an energy operation on hold (eventually permanently shutting it down) when it “caused a 3.4 magnitude earthquake thousands of aftershocks and millions worth of damage in Basel, a town of about 167,000 people… [A] Swiss government study … showed that the $60 million geothermal project was likely to cause earthquakes that would do several millions of dollars in damage each year. Residents could expect anywhere from 14 to 170 more earthquakes, most minor, over the 30 years the project would be in service.” SmartPlanet.com, December 15, 2009.

When the results in Switzerland became clear, a geothermal project in earthquake-prone Northern California was shut down in 2009 as well. “The California project, located 100 miles north of San Francisco and operated by AltaRock Energy, was put on hold in September after the company’s drilling efforts met ‘physical difficulties’ in the form of snapping drill bits. The project is located in The Geysers, the world’s largest dry-steam geothermal steam field… Both [the Swiss and the California] projects were based on an ‘enhanced geothermal’ system, which fractures bedrock and circulates water through the cracks to heat it and produce steam that powered the turbines of a power plant. Naturally, both projects were also based in areas with a history of seismic activity… The projects were originally supposed to force water underground to open new cracks, into which workers could then pump additional water, to be heated and turned into steam.” SmartPlaent.com.

Neither the EPA nor the Department of Energy is considering an immediate shutdown of fracking or the use and exploration of geothermal power, and indeed the latter is still on the books as an arena for further DOE research and development. But as we twist and squirm to sustain our energy dependent lifestyle, we are seeing wars over oil (whether they are labeled as such or not), economic viability rising and falling with the cost of energy, environmental disasters with oil spills, the release of toxic chemicals into our drinking water and unanticipated earthquakes. We need to think long and hard about conservation and alternative energy, and we will need a little more “deep thinking” to avoid the law of unintended consequences.

I’m Peter Dekom, and messing with Mother Nature is a whole lot more dangerous than messin’ with Sasquatch.