Fracking Water Causes California Earthquakes Says New Study

Injections of old water used for fracking in California have been linked to earthquakes for the first time, a new report has revealed.

The process of injecting wastewater from oil and gas drilling has already been found to cause earthquakes in Colorado and Oklahoma.

In the course of fracking, water mixed with chemicals and saline is injected at high pressure deep underground, to free up deposits of oil and gas. But massive amounts of wastewater is a bi-product, which is dumped in storage wells, or sometimes into the ocean.

The department of Conservation even permitted oil and gas companies to inject wastewater into protected aquifers in California, provoking outcry and lawsuits.

The new study sets out that injection wells can spark earthquakes a fair distance away, up to years after the injections take place.

The report tied a set of earthquakes in 2005 near Bakersfield, California, to wastewater disposal.

The study is by no means the first to link fracking and water injections to earthquakes.

A 2014 report, “On Shaky Ground: Fracking, Acidizing, and Increased Earthquake Risk in California,” by the Center for Biological Diversity raised concerns among environmentalists.

Last year a report confirmed that unconventional gas and oil drilling pose serious health threats.

People living near fracking sites are more likely to be hospitalized for heart conditions, research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia UNiversity found.

Fracking has caused much backlash from local communities for its detrimental impact on the environment and personal health. Last year residents of Denton, Texas, organized and chose to ban fracking due to health concerns, sparking concerns and reactions by the oil industry.

New York banned the technique after a health report, and some counties in California followed suit. In San Benito County and Mendocino County, fracking was banned. In Oklahoma, some residents have called for fracking to be banned in the towns Stillwater and Norman.

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