I received a response on the Recorder’s website from Jeremy Boak, state geologist at the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK), correcting me about an assertion in my July 10 My Turn article about the impacts of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in his state.
I wrote that Oklahoma’s “907 earthquakes” in 2016 “are the result of wastewater injection from fracking” and said that “most Oklahoma oil wells produce more toxic, briny water than petroleum.”
Boak stated that “there were 903 M3.0 and larger earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2015, but 623 in 2016, and the numbers continue to decline (145 to date in 2017).” I had my numbers wrong.
“Less than 5 percent of the wastewater being injected comes from hydraulic fracturing operations,” Boak wrote. “All oil and gas wells produce some water. In fact, in general, conventional wells produce more water per barrel of oil than conventional ones, and it is not unusual to produce more water than oil in many places other than Oklahoma.”
I went to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for further confirmation of Mr. Boak’s points.
The USGS confirms, “Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes. WASTEWATER DISPOSAL is the primary cause of the recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States.”
“Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than hydraulic fracturing, making them more likely to induce earthquakes” the USGS states. “Most wastewater currently disposed of across the nation is generated and produced in the process of oil and gas extraction … This wastewater is found at nearly every oil and gas extraction well.”
Mr. Boak and I are in accord about the environmental bottom line. “Climate change is a serious impact,” he writes, “and I don’t raise objections to [the My Turn article], but the facts on Oklahoma seismicity have not been presented accurately in this article.”
My numbers were wrong, but the fact remains that oil and gas extraction is the primary cause of seismic disturbance.
John Bos
Shelburne Falls