Another view of fracking

Another view of fracking

In reference to a Feb. 3 letter to the editor (“Don’t blame quakes on fracking”), I simply want to clarify some misleading partial facts. First of all, either The Vindicator or the writer failed to disclose that he is the vice president of land for Ohio Valley Energy, an Austintown company that specializes in leasing land in the area for oil and natural gas drilling (or fracking).

Now to the facts. Indeed, the EPA does set the regulations for underground injection disposal wells under the Safe Water Drinking Act through the Underground Injection Control (UIC) division of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. However, according to the department’s Web site, the UIC only “protects Ohio’s groundwater resources.” It does not protect against earthquakes, as the Feb. 3 letter suggests. Especially when the well in question drilled 9,200 feet deep directly into a geologic fault line and pumped billions of gallons of fracking “waste water,” which contains numerous undisclosed chemicals, into the crust of the earth over the course of two years.

Obviously, this well was exploring uncharted depths, which led to a highly unexpected result: 12 earthquakes in Youngstown since the D&L Energy disposal well began operations in December 2010.

Furthermore, a recent report from Won-Young Kim, a seismologist for the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismic Network, stated that all the quakes likely had similar epicenters, all much closer to the brine injection well than previously thought. In addition, the Dec. 31 earthquake was recorded at a depth of two miles, which is much shallower than any previously recorded natural quakes in the area.

Obviously, the disposal well in question had a hand in disrupting the earth’s crust on a fault line 9,200 feet below the surface, resulting in the 12 earthquakes we experienced in the Mahoning Valley.

People should look at the facts and cease to think of these natural resources as a cash cow. They should not be blinded by greed and fail to see how severely Mother Earth is being raped in exchange for a transitory quick buck. We, in Ohio, must follow New York’s lead and issue a moratorium on fracking until more research is done to discover its effects on the environment.

Evan Houk, Bessemer, Pa.

The writer is a student at Youngstown State University.