WHAT'S THAT FRACKING NOISE?

Fracking is in the news again.  This time it’s about a swarm of earthquakes in Ohio caused by fracking lubrication of local faulting.  I really like the TV ad from a natural gas company that promotes drilling and fracking (chemical addition also).  The problem is that the really nice drilling diagram shows no natural faulting in the ‘cap’ layers above the fracking area.    The diagram wrongly details the many layers of rock, soil, etc. with no natural faulting.  This false diagram really looks safe for our ground water sources. 

It is a big lie.  No matter where you go in the US you will find communication between deep layers of strata to allow vertical movement of liquids or gases.

Bandon, Oregon area is a very good example of a high fault area that most area residents have no clue.  How do you think Langlois Mountain and all the ‘hills’ in the area got here?  How do you think the beach sand benches were stacked up?

Methane Energy Corporation drilled wells to act as gathering points for small natural gas traps.  Yes, in time methane communication will meet the drill holes; but not fast enough to keep the corporation in business.

Check out this trick – small LLC’s go to private money and stock issue to drill wells.  The company makes lots of money for its owners and workers; but then goes bankrupt.  Some of the holes are ‘sealed’ and some left open as another company swoops in to save the day – cheap move.  The work is done: money made now, buy it cheap, then set back and wait for methane to move.

In the 70s the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was pumping very bad chemicals deep into wells.  The idea was ‘out of sight, out of mind’; but each time they dumped deep, they set off a swarm of earthquakes.  U.S.G.S did a study and concluded that all the bad chemicals were lubricating the faults in the well area.

Fracking has been banned in some countries and has a couple of court cases pending in US.  The problem is if you have an intrusive chemical if is very hard to fix!  Some of the drilling companies use micro seismic monitoring with geophones and tilt meters to guess the geometry of the fracturing action.  That information alone shows the fact that fracking causes seismic activity.  Would a ‘big’ quake be a tax deduction?  An estimated 90% of the natural gas wells in the United States use hydraulic fracturing.  It is all about the money.  For more data go to Wikpedia – topic:  Hydraulic Fracturing or FracFocus.org.