What's the story, the latest speculation on the Quakes in the Fort Worth/Barnett Shale Area ? (Dallas: 2013)

[JimBaker488]

Sunday morning a 3.3-magnitude earthquake rumbled through the outskirts of Azle. There was a repeat Monday morning.

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Yet another earthquake, the 30th since November 1, rattles Azle Monday morning | Dallas Morning News
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As someone who doesn't live in the FTW area or the N.Texas area at all, wondering what the inside talk is about this reoccuring seismic activity down there ?
The Tree-Huggers are always going on, whining and griping and crying about how it's related to the Fracking activity in the area, so any real evidence that there could actually be a correlation of some sort between the quakes and Barnett E&P activity ? I see what the paper says, wondered if someone could add something ?

[R1070]

Thank God they aren't drilling in Dallas. There's something that just doesn't seem right with the fracking that goes on over there. The earthquakes, the ailments of nearby residents, running water in homes you can light with a lighter. This lack of oversight is what gives Texas a bad name. I'm all for progress and commerce, but if it's interfering with the lives of the people who live there then something needs to be done. It doesn't matter what your political views are, quality of life should never be compromised.

[AfroAmericanofColor]

Originally Posted by R1070

Thank God they aren't drilling in Dallas. There's something that just doesn't seem right with the fracking that goes on over there. The earthquakes, the ailments of nearby residents, running water in homes you can light with a lighter. This lack of oversight is what gives Texas a bad name. I'm all for progress and commerce, but if it's interfering with the lives of the people who live there then something needs to be done. It doesn't matter what your political views are, quality of life should never be compromised.

This is nothing new. While there have always been fault lines and earthquakes in Texas, there hasn't always been the internet making everything seem conspiratorial.
Even without drilling, oil and gas will permeate into the water table naturally. When drilling, they are supposed to use at least two kinds casings. Not only that, but the casing is cemented into place. The outside case goes down far enough to protect the water table. Within that, the inner casing is supposed to go further down to points unknown. In other words, one kind of drill bit is used to drill a hole big enough to stuff in the casing to protect the water supply. This isn't any more significant than digging a whole for a well. The casing is actually stuffed into place. After that has been cemented in place, another drill bit is used within that for the casing that will go deeper and then the inner casing is stuffed into place. They have a special bottom pipe that is made out of a special stronger material so, hopefully, it won't break during the process.
They have this down to an art to where they supposedly can bend the pipe around at angles.
If you look at a drilling rig carefully, most likely there will be either drilling pipe or casing hanging off the side of it. They have some drilling rigs that can hang three joints of pipe that have already been threaded together, meaning they can swing about 120 foot of pipe around to be threaded onto the already sunken pipe. They have other shorter ones that have two threaded together.
This technology is quite dynamic and ever changing.

Here is a video:

How to Drill for Oil & Natural Gas - YouTube

[JimBaker488]

AZLE — A Texas Railroad Commission member will host a public forum with people who live in an area plagued by minor earthquakes.
Commissioner David Porter says the town hall meeting will be held Jan. 2 in Azle to discuss recent seismic activity. Moderator cut: copyright violation.

Public forum set to discuss North Texas quakes | Dallas Morning News
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This could likely turn into a real media circus and the place will also be crawling with tree-huggers and lawyers. We'll just need to stay tuned.

[AfroAmericanofColor]

Originally Posted by JimBaker488

Public forum set to discuss North Texas quakes | Dallas Morning News
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This could likely turn into a real media circus and the place will also be crawling with tree-huggers and lawyers. We'll just need to stay tuned.

Producing any kind of energy is destructive. I was reading lately about how a company was fined because its windmills had hacked an endangered eagle. Think of all those rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico not to mention all the thousands of capped wells? Then there is nuclear that is taking a huge beating right now.

I can see how fracking could help relieving pressure from major earthquakes making them less severe. The theory being that lots of annoying little earthquakes over a longer period of time would be better than having to suffer one big one all at once.