October 23, 2015
Oklahoma Scientists Agreed to Keep Quiet about Fracking-Earthquake Link for 5 Years
Friday, March 06, 2015
State scientists in Oklahoma have avoided for the past five years saying anything publicly about the link between the state’s increase in earthquakes and the use of hydraulic fracturing to boost oil and gas production. But privately the scientists thought differently about the controversy.
After obtaining copies of government emails, EnergyWire found that Oklahoma seismologists suspected as far back as 2010 that fracking and drilling operations were the source of many of the recent earthquakes.
The emails show that the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) began to agree with other scientists about such a link, and that the state’s chief seismologist, Austin Holland, revealed as much to a senior U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) official five years ago.
In 2013, Holland joined USGS in issuing an official statement from the agency stating that fracking may be responsible for the increasing risk of earthquakes in Oklahoma. “Activities such as wastewater disposal” may be a “contributing factor to the increase in earthquakes,” it said.
Within a week, Holland was called in to a meeting at Oklahoma Corporation Commission headquarters with the then-VP of the oil company Continental Resources , Jack Stark (currently president and COO), where displeasure was expressed about Holland’s joint USGS statement. In a subsequent email to his superiors, Holland wrote that those in the meeting were “in a denial phase.”
