We've known for quite a while about the dangers of fracking. Andrew Nikiforuk writes:
In the past ten days, North America’s oil and gas industry rattled key geological formations with earthquakes in British Columbia and Texas.
Damage from the U.S. quake, the third largest in Texas’s history, closed a major building in San Antonio and demonstrated that frack-triggered tremors can threaten structures even hundreds of kilometres away from the epicentre.
Starting on Nov. 11, Canada’s Montney Formation, a key source of methane and natural gas liquids straddling B.C. and Alberta, experienced three earthquakes measuring over four on the Richter magnitude scale.
Tremors greater than a magnitude of three can be felt while those greater than four can knock items off shelves and in rare cases cause damage to structures.
On Nov. 11 a quake registering 4.7 struck 140 km north of Fort St John in northeastern B.C. The province’s fracking regulator, the BC Oil and Gas Commission, told the Tyee that drilling by Malaysian-owned Petronas triggered the tremor and a cluster of others. As more earthquakes ensued, the Petronas operation was ordered to shut down but then restarted before again stopping when another quake topping four in magnitude struck on Nov. 15.
Meanwhile the U.S. fracking industry most likely triggered a 5.4 earthquake on Nov. 16 in the prolific oil bearing Permian Basin in west Texas. The largest quake in Texas since 1995, it rumbled the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez 320 kilometres away. In San Antonio, 560 kilometres from the quake’s epicentre, the structural damage inflicted on an historic, five-storey complex on the city’s University Health campus caused officials to close it down.
Since 2018 industry’s fracking and wastewater operations in the Permian Basin have caused thousands of earthquakes greater than a magnitude of 2.5.
In the last 15 years, fracking in the Montney Formation has changed the seismic patterns in the region and now accounts for 70 per cent of earthquakes. The industry initiated thousands of small tremors and then progressively triggered tremors of greater magnitude such as the 4.6 quake by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. that shook the Site C dam under construction in 2018.
Our continued use of oil warms the planet, while our search for more oil destabilizes it.
Image: CTV News Calgary
9 comments:
Let's not forget the waste of water, the use of proprietary chemicals, and the problem of what to do with fracking wastewater that contains massive amounts of brine, toxic metals and radioactivity. Quebec was right to ban fracking outright, no matter how much this offends the US oil and gas companies and their thinktank friends.
Cap
The destruction of our environment continues, Cap.
Why don't we hear from the Disaffected Lib? Where to look? Anyong
He's stopped writing his blog, Anyong. He's taking a break. We all need one once in a while.
On the plus side the people at the top of these Corporations will enjoy lavish lifestyles and the perks of being wealthy all the way up until their demise, then! When the bill comes due they'll be dead and won't suffer any consequences! WIN-WIN!
Deadbeats know how to skip out on their bills, Grung.
Very Good!....Yes! We all need rests from many issues taking place without much resolution. Anyong
https://www.ft.com/content/919a8582-f86b-4a3f-abbe-abe92ace1ed4
It's not only Quebec that got the message and opted out. After more blowback than he expected or could handle even the third Tory PM in 3 months, Rishi Sunak, had sufficient sense to outlaw UK fracking. Again.
In Canada? No way our cognoscenti are that radical. Our elite still fantasizes about an inevitable LNG Gold Rush. Result? We're sending cabinet ministers to sell LNG to Asian nations that already have more than they need.
Perverse? This is going on at the same time as these states are going green. With massive investments in solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal and so on. Don't take my word for it: just look it up.
Meanwhile? Canada's idea of energy security remains well... somewhat Paleolithic..
Why are we so lucky? Please advise.
Thanks for the link, A.V. We're looking backward, not forward.
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