{"id":40189,"date":"2015-04-29T10:26:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=40189"},"modified":"2015-04-29T10:34:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:34:49","slug":"could-evidence-of-manmade-quakes-cause-tectonic-shift-in-texas-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/04\/29\/could-evidence-of-manmade-quakes-cause-tectonic-shift-in-texas-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Evidence of Manmade Quakes Bring Tectonic Shift in Texas Regulation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_39413\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A dozen smaller earthquakes have struck Dallas this week. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/36676881_H15266658.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-39413\" alt=\"A dozen smaller earthquakes have struck Dallas this week. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/36676881_H15266658-300x204.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/36676881_H15266658-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/36676881_H15266658-620x422.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">OLIVER BERG DPA\/LANDOV<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dozen smaller earthquakes have struck Dallas this week.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There have been earthquakes in almost every corner of Texas since the start of the state&#8217;s most recent oil and gas boom. One &#8220;swarm&#8221; that really captured people\u2019s attention started in the town of Azle in 2013.\u00a0 When oil and gas regulators at the Railroad Commission of Texas visited the town, local people suggested ways to handle the waste water disposal wells thought to be causing the quakes. One idea came up over and over again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy is it we can&#8217;t shut the wells down around here for a period of time?\u201d asked resident Gale Wood. &#8220;If nothing happens after a while, that would be one way to determine what\u2019s going on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/203005390&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Railroad Commission has a different approach. In the case of Azle, it waited over a year while a team of seismologists at Southern Methodist University undertook a study.\u00a0 The results came back this month, confirming that disposal wells likely caused the quakes. That has some residents in Texas&#8217; quake country hoping the simple notion put forth at that public meeting -shut down disposal wells if there&#8217;s a chance they&#8217;re related to earthquakes- may get another hearing.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cWhen I saw the report I thought &#8216;wow, finally people will realize that we\u2019re not as dumb as they were trying to make us look,'&#8221; says Lynda Stokes, Mayor of the town of Reno, near Azle. &#8220;It makes a lot more sense to shut them down. [To] take care of your citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34008\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Lynda Stokes is the mayor of Reno in Parker County, where dozens of medium-sized earthquakes have been recorded in an area that used to be quake-free. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/01\/Lynda_Stokes.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34008\" alt=\"Lynda Stokes is the mayor of Reno in Parker County, where dozens of medium-sized earthquakes have been recorded in an area that used to be quake-free. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/01\/Lynda_Stokes-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/01\/Lynda_Stokes-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/01\/Lynda_Stokes-620x414.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/01\/Lynda_Stokes.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Doualy Xaykaothao \/ KERA News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lynda Stokes is the mayor of Reno in Parker County, where dozens of medium-sized earthquakes have been recorded in an area that used to be quake-free.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Under rules it adopted last year, the Railroad Commission doesn&#8217;t shut down a disposal well\u00a0 unless there\u2019s scientific data suggesting the well caused a quake. That data can take months or years to gather.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s no diagnostic tool that can help us just say &#8216;this earthquake was cause by wastewater injection, this earthquakes was caused by the fracking process, this earthquake was a natural earthquake,\u201d says Mark Peterson, a scientist with the US Geological Survey who just authored another report out this month re-affirming the link between oil and gas activity and earthquakes.<\/p>\n<p>So, even if scientists know disposal wells can cause quakes, and quakes start happening around a well, Texas regulators require earthquake research. Some other regulatory agency&#8217;s recommend a more aggressive approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are strongly recommending being proactive\u2026 get in front of it,&#8221; says Philip Dellinger. He&#8217;s head of the team that deals with disposal wells at EPA\u2019s Region Six office in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>This year the EPA released recommendations for how states should manage manmade earthquake risks. That includes proposal similar to a system known in the industry as the \u201ctraffic light model.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39735\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Philip Dellinger is head of the EPA\u2019s Underground Injection Control Section for Region 6 in Dallas.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/Philip.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-39735\" alt=\"Philip Dellinger is head of the EPA\u2019s Underground Injection Control Section for Region 6 in Dallas.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/Philip-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/Philip-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/Philip-620x465.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Philip Issa<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Philip Dellinger is head of the EPA\u2019s Underground Injection Control Section for Region 6 in Dallas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhat that means is when you think you might be dealing with potential future induced earthquakes, you can go into a well operators permit and say \u2018hey we\u2019re gonna let you do this,&#8217; says Dellinger.\u00a0 \u201cBut if we start getting earthquakes and if those earthquakes reach a magnitude over some defined magnitude. We\u2019re gonna bump up what you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That &#8220;yellow light&#8221; could mean the operators wouldnt be able to inject as much wastewater into the well or would need to inject it as a lower volume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe red light would be if it gets over magnitude X. you shut in the well,&#8221; says Dellinger.<\/p>\n<p>In Texas, disposal well operators have shut down well, or changed the amount they pump into them after quakes. But such actions are voluntary and rarely discussed publicly. In Oklahoma, the traffic light system is part of official regulation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37006\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-37006\" alt=\"Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped-300x206.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped.jpg 504w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Screen capture from Ryan Sitton campaign video.<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But even after the most recent scientific reports, Reno Mayor Lynda Stokes doesn\u2019t think the Railroad Commission is likely to adopt those rules. She points out that Commissioners still publicly question the link between oil and gas and the surge in quakes. A fact confirmed in an interview with Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton late last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very much not convinced that there is a causal link that has been determined yet,&#8221; said Sitton. He\u2019s called for a public hearing reviewing the study that links the Azle quakes to disposal wells. No date on that yet, but in June the Railroad Commission will hold two hearings to determine whether two disposal wells in Azle will be shut down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There have been earthquakes in almost every corner of Texas since the start of the state&#8217;s most recent oil and gas boom. One &#8220;swarm&#8221; that really captured people\u2019s attention started in the town of Azle in 2013.\u00a0 When oil and gas regulators at the Railroad Commission of Texas visited the town, local people suggested ways [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[211,104],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40189"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40225,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40189\/revisions\/40225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}