Biggest Earthquake Ever Recorded In Kansas Linked To Fracking

Biggest Earthquake Ever Recorded In Kansas Linked To Fracking

By Kurtis Bright

Fracking Wastewater Injection To Blame For Biggest Ever-Recorded Earthquake In Kansas

We think of some places as earthquake-prone: Japan, Chile, California. A commonality to these three examples is that they all lie in regions where two or more tectonic plates converge or are being pulled apart. Volatile places like these also give rise to volcanoes and other surprises from deep within the earth as the plates constantly shift and settle into new positions.

One place that we don’t associate with earthquakes is Kansas. The Midwestern state made famous by young Dorothy and a certain wizard is famously flat, lacks any trace of volcano, and is about as far from the edge of a continental plate as it is possible to be in North America.

Nonetheless the state and others in the region have seen increasing earthquake activity in recent years, activity which was at first considered novel and strange. Lately it has become more and more commonplace, and it is causing consternation for emergency services and insurance companies, as well as the residents of the area.

It has long been suspected that hydraulic fracturing activities otherwise known as “fracking”--which involves the injection of thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water deep into cracks in the bedrock to fracture them further, opening them up wider and releasing oil and natural gas--have contributed to the strange seismic activity.

Now there is finally proof: the largest earthquake ever recorded in Kansas--a 4.9 magnitude temblor that struck near the town of Milan, Kansas--was officially a byproduct of fracking, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The signs were apparent: the epicenter was near a fracking operation, for starters. The USGS believes that the earthquake likely came as a result of the injection of water in one of two wells operated by SandRidge Energy, according to the Wichita Eagle.

The Eagle also pointed out that SandRidge continues to inject water at those two sites to this day.

The conclusion that the earthquake was a result of the fracking activities came due to certain facts: there had never been recorded earthquakes in the area before fracking began, the proximity of the wells, the fact that the amount of water being injected increased shortly before the quake, and because there is an underground area there configured in such a way that changes in pressure could affect it.

Fracking wells dot the Midwest landscape, with Kansas alone hosting some 5,000 of them currently. Indeed, the history of fracking was made in Kansas: it’s the first place where fracking was tried on U.S. soil, all the way back in 1947.

But the millions of gallons of chemical-laden wastewater being pumped underground comes at a price: Kansas experienced four earthquakes total in 2013.

In 2014 that number skyrocketed to 817.

One of the most alarming things to come out of the report--aside from the simply absurd revelation that no one has stopped the SandRidge Energy company from continuing to pump water into the same wells that caused the earthquake--is that the quake along with another one that took place in nearby Pawnee, Oklahoma occurred on faults that were previously unknown.

“If the well is in the right place next to a fault and the fault is oriented the right way, a little change in stress could cause (an earthquake) to occur,” said study lead and USGS geologist George Choy.

In other words, buckle up, buckaroos. We may still be in Kansas, but its beginning to look a lot like Oz.

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Mom, I Don’t Feel So Good: Over Half a Million U.S. Children Attend School Within A Mile Of A Fracked Well

Mom, I Don’t Feel So Good: Over Half a Million U.S. Children Attend School Within A Mile Of A Fracked Well

By Kurtis Bright

Sickening New Study Finds That 650,000 U.S. Children Go To School Within A Mile Of A Fracking Site

Hell is for children, according to the song. But when it comes to what we put our children through in the U.S., some things are worse than others.

There’s the perpetual assault of video and audio noise they must learn to process even before birth. Then we ply them with giant fructose-trap sodas and chemical-laden fried “chicken” nugget-things throughout their childhood, thus dooming them to lives battling obesity and type 2 diabetes. We also pollute their air, and have done a fine job of ensuring that their future climate--hell, their future--will be at the very least less liveable than our own.

But these casual crimes committed daily against the young are perhaps eclipsed by the poisons with which they are enveloped due to fracking operations all across the U.S.

This proliferation of hydraulic fracturing--known as fracking--and the almost complete  lack of regulation or oversight of the process has made this problem much, much worse than most of us realize.

The Environment America Research & Policy Center has released the results of a study showing that as many as 650,000 U.S. schoolchildren are currently attending schools that are within a mile of a fracked well, exposing them to a horrorshow of toxins not only in their drinking water, but in the air they breathe every day.

“Oil and gas companies are fracking near our communities, polluting our air and water, and risking the health of our children and other vulnerable populations,” reads the report.

The study found that there were 1,947 child care facilities and 1,376 schools within a one-mile radius of a fracked well in the nine states they examined. But in addition to endangering children, the wells also constitute a threat for the elderly and infirm: in those nine states there were 103 hospitals and 236 nursing home care provider facilities within the one-mile radius.

What’s more, if you extend the radius to two miles from a fracked well, there are nearly a million and a half children attending school in the areas affected.

Should there be any lingering doubt about the seriousness of the issue, the prestigious Johns Hopkins University should be able to put it to rest. There have been no less than three studies on the effects of fracking on people living nearby, all of which have led to the same conclusions: people living near fracking wells are subject to increased risk of health problems ranging from asthma, sinus issues, migraines and fatigue, high-risk pregnancies and premature births.

“Given the scale and severity of fracking’s impacts, banning fracking is the prudent and necessary course to protect public health and the environment,” continues the Environment America report.

Indeed. However, don’t expect any change anytime soon. Short of passing a law mandating that the stockholders and CEOS of the oil companies and their families be forced to reside within a mile of the wells from which they profit, we can be certain that the hands-off policies toward fracking implemented by the Bush (Cheney) administration, and seamlessly continued by Obama will remain horribly inadequate to protect the public under a President Trump.

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