When unpopular heathen Donald Trump’s EPA pick Scott Pruitt isn’t violating the Hatch Act to raise money for Oklahoma Republicans, he’s trying to dismantle the EPA. Why would someone do that? Because Scott Pruitt has zero interest in the environment and even less interest in being forced to face the facts that many of our industries, specifically the fossil fuel-based ones, have a long and also recent history of violating our planet’s safety, as well as the people on it. For some time now, scientists have known that the injection of wastewater related to oil and gas operations is the likely culprit in the rise of earthquakes in much of Oklahoma. However, as Inside Climate News explains, the very large 5.8 magnitude quake last September that proved destructive to the Pawnee area of Oklahoma fell outside of the existing understanding. But not anymore. It turns out that the wastewater culprit just snuck in a couple of years earlier.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed injection data from the most active disposal wells in the area where the 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit last September. They found that there had been a sudden and dramatic increase in the amount of wastewater injected in the first half of 2013 at some of the wells.
That contributed "a fair amount of stress on the fault and would have accelerated the natural faulting process significantly," said Andrew Barbour, a USGS geophysicist who led the study.
Most of the science around this topic connected the present activity of injected wastewater with a more direct seismic response and this study suggests that the rate of injection may have had a more important role in creating the conditions that led to the Pawnee earthquake. Either way, here’s a quick history lesson about our new head of the EPA.
Johnson Bridgwater, director of the Sierra Club’s Oklahoma chapter, said that even when Oklahomans are insured, denials for earthquake damage are running upwards of 90%.
“Recently, an entire downtown was destroyed in Cushing, OK, and elderly residents were forced from their homes,” he said.
Bridgwater said that as AG, Pruitt hasn’t lifted a finger on the issue of earthquakes even though both United States Geological Survey and the EPA have both stated that Oklahoma should take further actions.
“Pruitt could have ordered injunctions to stop the activities, or he could add Oklahoma to existing lawsuits as an intervenor,” he said.
The good news here is that with science there may be things people in Oklahoma can do to help reduce the seismic impact these oil and gas operators have. This is just one study and more research will have to be done but it might lead to better and safer practices while we all wait for more environmentally friendly energy sources to take hold.