Earthquakes strike in southern Kansas again

South-central Kansas and northern Oklahoma on Sunday and Monday experienced a second batch of earthquakes in four days with magnitudes reaching as high as 3.9 and 4.1.

Nine earthquakes shook the area over a 24-hour period ending Monday, and on Thursday, eight earthquakes rattled the region.

No injuries have been reported and it’s unknown how much property was damaged.

Scientists have determined the quakes that are afflicting that region and other states including Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio are manmade.

The number of earthquakes in Kansas went from none in 2012 to more than 120 in 2014.

Peer-reviewed studies show that they are likely caused by the disposal of massive amounts of contaminated waste water that is used in a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract oil and natural gas.

During fracking, operators use a mixture of saltwater and chemicals to break tight underground rock formations to release oil and gas. To get rid of the water after the fracking process, operators inject the water deep into disposal wells.

Several states, cities and counties have issued fracking bans or moratoriums or are considering them.

The Kansas Sierra Club already supports a bill, not yet introduced, to impose a moratorium on fracking to give the oil and gas industry time to develop a solution to the saltwater disposal issue, said Joe Spease, chairman of the Kansas Sierra Club’s fracking committee and owner of a renewable energy company in Overland Park.

But in light of the number of earthquakes during the past four days, Spease said on Monday that a moratorium needs to happen quickly.

“We are feeling these quakes as far north as Nebraska,” Spease said. “We are not asking for something unreasonable. Protecting the people is not unreasonable.”

But Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, who is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee and several other federal energy committees and task forces, disagreed.

Sloan acknowledged the many earthquakes over the past several days, but he believes an answer to disposing of the fracking waste water is close. To shut down fracking would have a detrimental impact on the state’s economy, he said.

“The world economy runs on fossil fuels,” he said. “The U.S. economy runs on fossil fuels. We have to be responsible and protect people’s lives, but at the same time there are no risk-free alternatives. There are no answers that will satisfy everyone.”

Meanwhile the U.S. Geological Survey, in a nod to the risk from the earthquakes, will for the first time include manmade earthquake data with its National Seismic Hazard Map, Morgan Moschetti, research geophysicist with the National Seismic Hazard Project in Golden, Colo., said Monday.

The USGS develops the seismic provisions that go into the International Building Codes, a model that many local and state governments adopt or use as guidelines to ensure buildings and houses are erected to certain standards so they are not considered hazardous.

The data will allow builders to know how many earthquakes may occur in a given region, how often they will occur and their strength so the buildings can be constructed to withstand them.

People will have to adapt to the changes earthquakes bring, at least for the time being.

“It is a new phenomenon,” Moschetti said.